Neon Genesis Evangelion: Forever Intertwined
by WaivernRiver
Summary: This story is my vision of a second season of Eva. I'll be using the Evangelion Series and some ideas from the movies as my basis. I'll be as creative as possible. Don't be surprised if I throw in OC characters. It's the only way to truly make this story my own. It is a fan fiction, after all. Warning! Coarse language to a certain extent. Enjoy.
1. Episode 1

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

It's good to be back! *Laughs* After writing the 2nd Branch of NERV Story, I was really motivated to write my next Fan-fiction for Evangelion. As a result, I'm going to start on it, but it may take me a while before I get into the swing of things. Now, I'm going to give you a quick summary of what my idea is for this story/series. (I still like the idea of calling it a series) My series takes place after the 3rd Impact and the story will obviously start right where the End of Evangelion had left off. I will be taking ideas from other sources when writing the episodes, but I will be mostly using my ideas. Most of what I will be using from another source aside myself is from Hideaki Anno, who is obviously the creator of Evangelion and I will always give him credit because he did make the series and the movies. *Smiles* I really hope that you guys enjoy it as much as the 2nd Branch Story and if you didn't read the 2nd Branch story then that's alright... For now. This here is a Fan-fiction and I do not claim owning Neon Genesis Evangelion at all because that would be disrespecting the great Anno.

Episode 1: Starting Over From Near Destruction

The scene starts with Shinji still on top of Asuka while still crying. Asuka currently has her right hand, which is the hand that's heavily bandaged, on his left cheek. Everything around them has been destroyed and right behind Shinji is the lake of blood that was created from the cutting of the giant Rei's head, which half of the face is still showing on the surface of the bloody lake as the small cross that Misato had given Shinji is nailed to a piece of wood sticking out from the ground nearby. Disturbingly enough, it looks like the giant head is staring directly at Shinji with a creepy expression. At that exact moment, a giant splash is heard and it appears that Eva Unit 01 has crashed into the bloody lake while still being in a fossilized-like state. It slowly sinks to the bottom as Shinji and Asuka don't react to it.

Shinji continues to cry while having his head down and his eyes are closed as he thinks to himself, "What the hell am I doing?! I chose to come back, but like an idiot, I'm trying to kill Asuka! What the hell's wrong with me?!"

Asuka looks at Shinji while having an emotionless expression and says with a bland tone, "I feel sick, Idiot. And you sitting on me isn't helping."

Shinji instantly opens his eyes while being quite surprised. He then looks up at Asuka and suddenly smiles at her while faintly saying, "I'm sorry." He gets off of her and sits to her left. He then looks towards the bloody lake as the giant Rei head is slowly going under the lake's surface. He then thinks to himself while having a light smile, "That was so typical of her. She had to make a comment like that for me to finally snap out of it." He then chuckles to himself while closing his eyes.

Asuka turns her head to look at him with a hint of irritation due to Shinji's sudden laughter. "What's so funny?" She slowly sits up while staring at him and says with annoyance in her voice, "I said I don't feel good and all you do is laugh! What the hell, you idiot?!"

Shinji throws his head back while laughing as he thinks, "This is one of the reasons why I came back! How could I have possibly had imagine my life without her insulting me like this!"

Asuka gets even more irritated due to Shinji laughing again as she glares at him. She then realizes that her left eye is bandaged and touches it with her right hand with confusion brimming. "How the hell is my eye bandaged?!" She then puts her hand down while looking at it and makes a surprised expression. "And my right hand too!"

Shinji stops laughing and makes a concerned expression while turning his head to look at her. "I don't know. You were like that when I came back."

Asuka looks at him with confusion still being noted on her face. "When you came back?"

Shinji nods while making a plain expression. He then looks towards the bloody lake as he curls up into a ball and lies his head on his arms. "Yeah. I came back because I want to stay here with everyone. Even though I've been through a lot of pain, I'm willing to go through that pain to keep what's important to me."

Asuka's surprised again while still looking at him. She then gets very annoyed while looking at their surroundings. "But there's no one else left." She looks at him again with an upset expression. "Because of you, there's no one left!" She shakes her head while closing her eyes and then looks at him again while yelling out, "No! Because of us, there's no one left! We failed, Shinji!"

Having said that, Asuka places her right hand on her chest and says with a distraught tone, "I lost to those damn Evas after I worked so hard to beat them!" She then points at him with her right hand while giving him an intense glare. "And all you did was just come back after letting everything get destroyed!" Asuka puts her hand down while leaning towards Shinji with a distraught expression. "We let everyone down and now we're the only ones still alive!"

Rei slowly walks up from behind them out of nowhere while wearing her school uniform as she says with a bland tone, "That's not true."

Asuka's startled due to hearing Rei's voice and looks at her with a shocked expression. "First! You're alive!"

Shinji looks at Rei while being surprised to see her and quickly gets up while turning towards her. "But, how are you alive?! I thought you were gone like everyone else?!"

Rei makes a light smile while looking at Shinji. "Don't you remember, Ikari. You made a choice and it was based on your desire to be with everyone. What would have been the point if you and Soryu were the only ones to have returned?"

Both Shinji and Asuka look at each other while being amazed at what Rei said. They then both look back at Rei while saying simultaneously, "Then that means...?!"

Rei nods while still having a light smile on her face. She then turns around while calmly saying, "They will be waiting for us at Central Dogma. We shouldn't keep them waiting too long."

Asuka quickly gets up and stands next to Shinji while still being a bit surprised. "Are you sure?!"

Rei nods her head again in response while not looking at Asuka. The red-head then looks at Shinji with a smile. "Then let's go!" Asuka looks forward and then starts running towards the direction of the NERV facility.

Shinji watches Asuka run while he walks up next to Rei with an amazed expression. "I can't believe it...!"

Rei looks at him with a smile. "It's true, Ikari. You saved everyone. Now let s go be with them." She then looks forward and starts to run as well.

Shinji continues to be amazed for a moment, but suddenly smiles and says to himself, "Alright." He then runs after them while yelling out, "Wait up!"

The three children continue on their way towards NERV while at the same time, in Central Dogma, everyone is laying on the floor at first. Then, one by one, everyone wakes up and they are slowly getting up. Meanwhile, at a lower level, Misato regains consciousness and gets up from the floor. She then looks around out of disbelief due to her not believing that she's alive, let alone that her injuries have miraculously healed. She then regains her focus and rushes off to Central Dogma, in the hope of everyone being alright. At the same time, Gendo and Ritsuko have also woken up while still being in the room that once held Lilith.

Gendo gets up as he's looking around with a serious expression. He then looks at the giant cross that Lilith used to be pinned up against and says with a disappointed tone, "It seems like my efforts have failed. I couldn't be with my Yui again; even after everything I was willing to sacrifice." He looks down at the floor. "Maybe it's for the best that I take this as a sign to give up on being with Yui, and become a better father."

Ritsuko laughs while pointing the gun that's in her right hand at him and looks at him with determination being displayed. "As if that could ever happen. How could you expect anyone to believe that you could care for someone other than yourself and your selfish desires?"

Gendo looks at her with no real emotion while turning to face her. "Because I had made a promise to Yui." He pauses for a moment while looking up towards the ceiling. "And I plan on finally keeping that promise." He then looks directly at Ritsuko with a slightly apologetic expression. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Ritsuko's surprised by Gendo's apology while pulling back a bit. She then gets very irritated while the hand that's holding the gun shakes as she thinks to herself. "This man makes me sick! I should just shoot him! That's what I wanted for so long after he tossed me aside! But..." She then suddenly drops the gun and turns around with anger filling her person. She then says without looking at him while having a harsh tone, "Just be sure you don't screw up again, Commander!" She then starts walking away while adding, "Because next time I won't be so nice!"

Gendo watches her walk away for a moment. After a few seconds pass, he turns to look at the giant cross while saying to himself in a low volume, "I'll be sure to keep that in mind." He smiles while turning around and starts to walk away from the giant cross.

They both head towards Central Dogma while not saying another word to each other. Meanwhile, the children have made it inside the NERV facility and they are about to reach Central Dogma until they end up running into Misato.

Asuka sees Misato first and yells out of joy, "Misato!"

Shinji yells out as well with happiness being noted. "Misato! You're alive!"

Misato turns to look at them while being quite surprised. She then smiles as her eyes begin to water and runs towards the children while spreading out her arms. "Asuka! Shinji!"

In response, both Shinji and Asuka enter into Misato's embrace and hug her while trying not to cry from the joy they're feeling. Misato embraces both of them while trying to hold back her tears as she's looking at them. "I'm so glad that you guys are alright!"

Rei stands behind her fellow pilots while watching them and thinks to herself, "It must be nice to have someone who cares so much and to be able to be that close." She makes a sad expression while lowering her head.

Misato's smiling at first, but then looks up and sees Rei. She becomes a bit concerned after seeing Rei's posture while letting go of Asuka and Shinji. "Rei?"

Rei suddenly looks up with curiosity rising from within. "Yes, Colonel Katsuragi?"

Shinji and Asuka both back away from Misato to look at Rei with a bit of curiosity showing on their face.

Misato giggles, and with her left hand, she motions Rei to come towards her. "You don't have to act like an outcast. Now, come over here because I'm glad that you're alright too." She smiles at Rei while closing her eyes.

Rei's surprised by what Misato just said while taking a step back. She then looks down at the floor and says in a hesitant way while blushing a little. "R-Really...?"

Asuka gets a little annoyed while placing her right hand on her hip. "If Misato says it then it's true!" She then points at Rei with the other hand while motioning her to come as she says with a commanding tone, "Now don't make me drag you over here because it's obvious that Misato wants to give you a hug!" She then puts her hand down that she was pointing with while still being a bit annoyed.

Rei makes another surprised expression while looking up at Asuka. She then makes a slightly smile as she slowly walks up to Misato and looks at her while making a nervous expression. Misato just looks at her while still smiling. She then slowly extends her arms out and hugs Rei while closing her eyes. This causes Rei to blush again while having a shocked expression as she thinks to herself. "So this is what a hug feels like." She slowly moves her arms and wraps them around Misato's waist to hug her. Once she does, she smiles while closing her eyes and thinks again. "It feels so warm."

Shinji watches on while smiling and thinks, "I definitely made the right choice." His smile suddenly disappears as he looks towards the right side and keeps thinking while having an emotionless expression. "Because if I had chosen to live in a world that I could control everything then nothing would have been real."

Asuka's smiling while watching Rei and Misato hug each other. She then notices Shinji's expression and becomes a bit concerned as she turns her head to look at him and thinks to herself. "He still hasn't changed. He's still that spineless idiot, who I've come to..." She then blushes before finishing that thought and rapidly shakes her head with her eyes closed. She then stops while making a determined expression and yells out as she's looking at Shinji. "Hey, idiot! What's with the face?!"

Shinji suddenly looks at her while having a surprised expression. Both Misato and Rei look at Asuka as well while letting go of each other and they both have a surprised expression. Asuka then makes a serious expression while glaring at Shinji as she puts both her hands on her hips. "Well whatever is bothering you, get over it! You just saved the world for Christ's sake, so stop being so depressing all the time!"

After hearing Asuka's words, Shinji keeps looking at her while still being quite surprised. He then suddenly makes a slight smile at her while saying, "You're right, Asuka. Thank you."

Asuka smiles while making a confident expression and nods. "Of course I'm right! Did you forget who I am?!"

Shinji chuckles while shaking his head. "Never. I would never forget who you are, Asuka."

Misato giggles while taking a step forward. "Now that we have been reunited and expressed our happiness, I think it's time for us to go check on everyone else, don't you think?" All three children look at her and nod in agreement. Misato then smiles while nodding and says with a lot of enthusiasm as she does a fist-pump with her right hand. "Then let's go!"

They all then head towards Central Dogma and soon get there. Maya, Hyuga and Aoba are all standing together at Maya's post while Fuyutsuki is standing where he and Gendo are always at during an angel attack.

Maya sees Misato and the pilots. She then yells out of joy and rushes to them. "You're all alright! I'm so relieved!"

Asuka nods with confidence. "Of course! You didn't think that I would let it end like that!"

Rei responds to Asuka's boasting with a plain tone while having an emotionless expression as she's looking away from her. "But it was Shinji who saved everyone."

Asuka becomes quite annoyed as she looks at Rei with an intense glare. "Yeah, but he didn't have to fight against NINE Evas! And I was owning those bastards until they cheated!"

Rei looks at Asuka while maintaining the same expression from before. "That sounds like an excuse, Soryu."

Asuka gets even more annoyed and yells out while closing her good eye as she clenches her hands. "At least I did something!" She then looks at her with a serious glare while pointing at Rei with her left hand. "What did you do?!

Rei responds plainly, "I helped Ikari return."

Asuka becomes annoyed again while pointing her finger down and thinks to herself, "Damn... Did I just lose that argument?"

Shinji suddenly walks up to Asuka while having an apologetic expression as he's looking at her. "I'm sorry, Asuka."

Asuka looks at him in surprise for a brief moment. She then gets irritated while glaring at him and yelling out, "Why are you apologizing again?!"

Shinji looks down at the floor while making a sad expression. "If I wasn't so pathetic, I would have figured out a way to get out there sooner and prevented what happened to you."

Asuka keeps looking at him while still being a bit irritated. She then sighs and pushes his right shoulder with her left hand, which causes him to look up at her while being a bit surprised. Asuka then says with a sincere smile, "Don't worry about it, Stupid Shinji. You can't change the past, so let's just get over it and move on."

Shinji keeps looking at her while still being surprised. He then smiles while nodding. "Okay."

Misato's smiling while watching the pilots. She then notices out of the corner of her left eye that Ritsuko and Gendo have just arrived. This results in her yelling out of joy after turning to look directly at her. "Ritsuko!"

Maya turns to look at Ritsuko while being very surprised to see her. She then thinks to herself as she smiles with tears starting to form under her eyes. "Thank goodness that she's alright. I'm so happy."

Ritsuko sees Misato and smiles at her as she stops walking. She then calmly responds, "It's good to see that you're alright, Katsuragi."

Misato rushes to Ritsuko and grabs onto Ritsuko's hands to show how happy she is to see that she's alright. "Same here! I was actually wondering where you were, but that doesn't matter anymore because you're obviously alright!" She smiles for a moment, but then notices Gendo. This causes her to instantly become quite nervous while letting go of Ritsuko's hands. "Commander! You're alright as well!" She then salutes him with her right hand while trying to look professional.

Gendo smirks as he looks at Misato. "There's no need for that. Right now being formal isn't that important." He looks at Asuka with seriousness taking over. "What is important is that we have the 2nd Child checked on. Those wounds may be bandaged, but they could still have permanent effects." He looks at Ritsuko to let her know that she needs to check on Asuka.

Ritsuko sees that he's looking at her and nods in response while making a plain expression. She then looks at Asuka with a smile. "Come on, Asuka." She then turns around and starts to walk away from the others. As she does that, Asuka nods while smiling and starts to follow Ritsuko. Shinji then suddenly stops right in front of Asuka while making a nervous expression as he's looking down at the floor.

Asuka makes a confused expression due to Shinji standing in her way as she looks at him. She then puts her left hand on her hip while asking with curiosity in her voice, "What is it, Shinji?"

Shinji hesitates for a moment while still looking at the floor. He then looks up at Asuka while still being a bit nervous. "Is it alright that I go with you?"

Asuka's surprised at Shinji's sudden request while blushing a little bit. She then looks away while trying to regain her composure and says with an exasperated tone. "Do what you want!" She then marches right passed Shinji while trying to catch up to Ritsuko. Shinji then turns around to watch Asuka walk away and makes a faint smile as he follows her.

Misato raises her left eyebrow as she thinks to herself while being slightly surprised, "That's a first. I would have never thought Shinji would have been so bold to show he wants to go to the clinic for Asuka's sake." She smiles while thinking, "I guess Shinji wants to show Asuka how much he cares. And I think that it would be for the best for Asuka to realize that there's actually someone who does care about her."

Fuyutsuki watches on from the same spot while smiling. Then, the phone that's connected to that area suddenly rings. This causes him to look at it with a bit of concern as he thinks to himself. "Who could that possibly be?" He then answers the phone and places it on his right ear while holding it with his right hand and calmly says, "Fuyutsuki."

Kaji's voice comes through while having a content tone. "It's good to hear that you're alive. That must mean Instrumentality failed."

Fuyutsuki's eyes widen from surprise as he's looking down at the floor and says in a whisper, "This couldn't be...!"

Kaji laughs while he's standing in the room that he was killed in as he's holding his cellular to his left ear with his shoulder. "It is. I'm back."

Fuyutsuki makes an expression of disbelief while looking up towards the ceiling and is unable to control his volume when saying, "But how?! You're suppose to be dead!" Due to Fuyutsuki's outburst being quite loud, Misato overhears it and looks at him with concern.

Kaji smiles while leaning up against the wall with a big fan on it and holds his cellular with his left hand. "The only thing I can come up with is that I was brought back by whoever had control during the 3rd Impact. Or at least that person gave me the option to come back." He pauses for a moment as he looks to his right while slowly opening it and closing it as he's still smiling. He then stops while putting his hand down and asks with curiosity showing on his face. "By the way, is Misato there?"

Fuyutsuki looks towards Misato, who's still looking at him with curiosity, and then he says with a plain tone, "Yes. Obviously, you want to let her know that you're back."

Kaji keeps on smiling while looking up at the ceiling. "I would really appreciate that, if you don't mind."

Fuyutsuki nods to himself while saying, "Alright." He then moves the phone away from his ear and with his left hand; he motions Misato to come to him. "There's someone who would like to talk to you, Colonel."

That causes Misato to be a bit confused as she then walks up to Fuyutsuki and takes the phone from him. After Fuyutsuki gives her the phone, he walks pass her and goes to Gendo while making a slightly serious expression. Once he reaches Gendo, he stands next to him and says to him while looking at Misato, "You would never guess who's on the phone."

Gendo makes a serious expression while looking at Fuyutsuki out of the corner of his left eye. "Is that so?"

Misato holds up the phone to her right ear while being a bit confused at who could want to talk to her. "Katsuragi here."

Kaji chuckles to himself while still looking up at the ceiling. "I never thought I would hear your beautiful voice again."

Misato's in shock as she slowly drops the phone while looking in front of her. At the same time, she thinks to herself in disbelief, "No way! It couldn't be him!"

Kaji's voice comes from the phone while sounding a bit concerned. "Misato! Hey, Misato! Are you still there?! I heard a thump!"

Misato starts to panic while trying to pick up the phone. She then places the phone on her left ear while hyperventilating a little bit. "Is it really you?!"

Kaji responds with a caring tone. "Yes, Misato. It's me."

Misato tries to hold back her tears while covering her mouth with her right hand as she thinks to herself. "Oh my God! He's back! I can't believe it" She then closes her eyes while still thinking to herself. "I don't know how, but thank God he's back!"

Kaji looks down at the floor. "Misato. I'll be there as soon as possible. There's a lot I want to talk to you about, and there's a lot of things I want to tell you."

Misato puts her hand down and smiles as she opens her eyes while saying, "I look forward to it."

Rei watches Misato with no real emotion being displayed and thinks to herself. "If I'm correct, due to Ikari's desire to be with everyone and to remain in this world, people who had even died before the 3rd Impact have returned. But that depends on how much time has passed since their death." She then pauses for a moment while looking towards the opposite direction and thinks, "Unfortunately, some unwanted people have returned as well."

Maya's looking at her computer while being very surprised and yells out, "This is unbelievable! The JSSDF are alive as well, but it seems like they're all leaving!"

Aoba walks up to Maya and looks at her with an expression of disbelief. "But why would they just leave? If they wanted to, they could attack us and finish us off."

Fuyutsuki looks at Maya and Aoba for a moment. He then looks at Gendo while crossing his arms with seriousness noted. "What do you think, Ikari?"

Gendo glances at Fuyutsuki while being quite serious. "I have a good idea who could be behind this. After all, if we're back, that means they're back as well."

The focus suddenly changes and we now see that SEELE has also returned. Chairmen Keel stands in front of a desk while being surrounded by the 11 black Monoliths that says "Sound Only". These Monoliths obviously represent that every member of SEELE has returned. All members are currently in the same dark room that they have been when confronting Gendo and Fuyutsuki prior to the 3rd Impact, and this is the same room they were in during the 3rd Impact.

Keel has a serious expression as he looks down at his body and thinks, "I'm a full-fledged human again..." He then peers at his fellow members with his hands behind his back. "I have notified the Governor of Japan that NERV is no longer a threat, and to have the JSSDF pull out from there."

SEELE # 3 responds with a stern tone. "Are you sure that was wise?"

SEELE # 8 adds with a stern tone as well. "He's right. Wouldn't it have been better to have the JSSDF finish them off?"

Keel shakes his head. "No." He then starts to pace back and forth while keeping his hands behind his back. "Without them, it would be nearly impossible to try Instrumentality again. We will need them while at the same time we'll be using our ace in the hole."

SEELE # 6 calmly states, "If you think that's the only choice then we have to do it."

SEELE # 2 adds while sounding a bit annoyed. "But I hate the thought of having to rely on our ace."

Keel stops pacing and turns to look at SEELE # 2 due to his monolith being towards the left of Keel. "Well fortunately, I found out that an old friend of ours is also back. He's on his way to the 4th Branch as we speak." He smirks while he looks at the other members. "Also, we still have a few tricks up our sleeves, but first, we have to leave this facility and leave nothing here to give them any hints to where we're going."

SEELE # 12 responds with concern. "So does that mean we will be leaving Japan?"

Keel turns his head towards the left to look at SEELE # 12 from behind him and nods. "Of course. Ikari most likely knows that we're still alive. It would be too much of a risk to stay here when he already knows our current location."

SEELE # 9 says with an arrogant tone, "It doesn't matter that much that we have to leave. Either way, we will get everything together and make our move soon."

Keel nods in agreement while looking at SEELE # 9, who's to his right. "That's exactly what we will do."

SEELE # 5 then asks with a concern tone. "By the way, will we be using our ace right from the beginning or for the end?"

Keel makes an emotionless expression while looking up at the ceiling. "Don't worry about it. I'll handle everything involving our ace." He then smirks.

With that said, the focus changes to Asuka , who's being examined by Ritsuko as Shinji is waiting out in the hallway while sitting on a bench. Asuka's going through an entire body check up to see if there are any other injuries as she's completely naked. She's sitting down on the clinic's bed and she's covering her breasts with her left arm while crossing her legs. Her right arm has new bandages on and so does her left eye.

Ritsuko looks at her with a smile while holding up a clipboard and a pen. "Why are you covering up?"

Asuka gives Ritsuko an irritated look and says, "Because that pervert is outside and he could peep in here at any moment!"

Ritsuko laughs while closing her eyes and says happily, "Well it's good that the ordeal you went through hasn't changed you."

Asuka frowns while looking towards the left out of the corner of her eyes. "True, but everything I did was pointless. I wanted to beat those bastards and yet I failed once again as a pilot."

Ritsuko's smile disappears due to what Asuka said while she opens her eyes to look at her with sadness in her eyes. "I know you went through hell, but if it wasn't for all your hard effort, we would had been defeated much sooner and Shinji probably wouldn't have been able to do anything."

Asuka gives out a short laugh and looks up at Ritsuko. "You know. Now that I think about it, Shinji had done something disgusting while I was in a coma. I should still be mad at him."

Ritsuko makes a confused expression while putting the hand that's holding the pen, which is the left hand, on her hip. "How would you know that if you were in a coma?"

Asuka keeps looking at her with a hint of sadness rising. "I saw a vision of it during 3rd Impact." She laughs lightly and puts her head down. "But I'm actually over it. After going through what I went through, something like what Shinji did just confirms that he likes my body, that's all." She giggles.

Ritsuko keeps looking at her while still being a bit confused and thinks to herself, "What the hell exactly happened between those two?! I never thought Asuka would forgive Shinji for something that he did that she even says was disgusting!"

At the same time, Shinji's revealed to be standing behind the clinic's door while having his right ear against the door. He's currently crying softly to himself with his eyes closed while thinking to himself, "Thank you, Asuka!" He then clenches his right fist while he places it on the door and whispers to himself, "I'll be sure to make it up to you."

Asuka looks up at Ritsuko with a bit of concern brimming. "So how am I?"

Ritsuko looks at a table and places the clipboard and pen down on it. She then looks at Asuka with a smile. "You're alright. You'll have to keep the bandages on for about a month since you did receive physical damage from the high sync ratio with your Eva."

Asuka sighs out of relief while pointing her head upward and yells out joyfully, "Thank goodness!" She then stands up while having her good eye closed as she's still covering herself. She then opens her eye and turns around. "Now I can put on some clothes before that pervert decides to peep."

Ritsuko giggles. "You mean gown. I was notified while you were taking your plugsuit off that your clothes that were in the locker room were destroyed. You can thank the JSSDF for that."

Asuka makes a surprised expression while turning to look at Ritsuko. "You can't be serious?! I don't want to wear a fucking gown!"

Ritsuko giggles again. "It's either that or you go home naked."

Asuka turns back around with irritation taking over and yells out, "Gown it is!" She pauses for a moment while looking up at the ceiling and then says with curiosity, "By the way, where am I, Shinji and Misato going to live? I doubt any place in Tokyo-03 is intact."

Ritsuko looks at her with a plain expression. "Don't worry about that. There are actually a lot of housings in the Geofront in case for NERV Personnel. It's actually in the lower levels, so I doubt that they are destroyed or were even affected."

Asuka turns her head to look at her. "I guess we'll be living there from now on, huh?"

Ritsuko shrugs while smiling. "Maybe. We'll have to hear what the Commander has to say about that."

Asuka shrugs also as she turns her head to look forward and walks towards the closet that has the gown. "Alright."

Shinji moves his ear away from the door and leans up against it while looking at the floor as he spaces out. "I guess in a way, we will be starting over." He then looks up at the ceiling. "There's no helping it." He smiles. "This will be my second chance. I better not waste it."

The scene then changes back to focus on a conversation between Misato, Gendo, Fuyutsuki and everyone else who's currently in Central Dogma.

Misato makes a slightly concerned expression while looking at Gendo. "So what are we going to do? Right now, Tokyo-03 is in a vulnerable state. We should make the plans to repair the city and the Geofront as soon as possible.

Gendo nods while looking at her with seriousness being displayed. "You are correct, Colonel. But first, Fuyutsuki and I will go see the Governor of Japan to talk about our current situation." He looks at Fuyutsuki while saying, "Hopefully, they don't abandon us just like they did with Old Tokyo." He then looks at Maya, Hyuga and Aoba. "You all will notify Tokyo-02 that everyone over here is alive and that it's safe to return to help with reconstruction."

Maya makes a confused expression while looking towards Gendo. "Tokyo-02? Who's in Tokyo-02?"

Misato calmly looks at her while crossing her arms. "I'm not surprised that you didn't know. The thing is that when the civilians left Tokyo-03, they were told to go to Tokyo-02 so they would have a moderately safe place to stay for a short period of time." She then glances up towards the ceiling while making a curious expression as she thinks to herself. "Now that I think about it, I can contact the Horoki family and get Pen-Pen back." She then smiles to herself.

Hyuga looks at Gendo with concern showing. "How have they been living there, Commander? I thought the power supply to Tokyo-02 was disconnected."

Gendo looks at Hyuga while still being serious. "Indeed it was disconnected, but we had it reconnected for them to live there. Although, it's only temporary due to Tokyo-02 not having much supplies for them. This is why you all need to notify them to return because with some of their help and hopefully the help from the government, we can rebuild Tokyo-03." He then looks at everyone. "Also, once reconstruction of the city is finished, we will rebuild the Evas." Due to him saying that last part, everyone in Central Dogma gasp while being quite surprised.

Misato takes a step towards Gendo with surprise being noted on her face as she uncrossed her arms. "What?! But why would we need to rebuild the Evas?!"

Gendo looks at Misato. "Because if we are alive then that means SEELE is also alive."

That answer from Gendo causes Misato to be in shock for a moment while taking a step backwards. Hyuga then makes a slightly concerned expression after seeing Misato's reaction and asks with a curious tone, "Who's SEELE?"

Misato becomes very irritated as she looks at the floor while clenching her fists and says with a serious tone, "They're the ones who are responsible for this." Hyuga softly gasps after hearing what Misato had just said while being stunned. Misato then continues to say while still in the same position, "They most likely were pulling the strings of the JSSDF to attack us. They are the ones to blame for all of this."

Fuyutsuki looks at Misato with a serious stare. "This is why myself and Commander Ikari will talk to the Governor. We need to make him understand that SEELE was manipulating the entire government and the JSSDF to create 3rd Impact." He pauses for a moment while sighing and then continues to say, "Let's just hope that he will give us the time of day and believe us."

Gendo looks at Fuyutsuki with confidence. "Don't worry. I'm fairly confident he will. Once I tell him everything then he AND the government will not want anything to do with SEELE ever again." He then suddenly becomes concerned while looking away from Fuyutsuki by turning his head towards the left. "Although, we need to find out what happened to Unit 01, so we can get it running again."

Misato makes an expression of realization while saying, "Oh, that's right. I forgot to tell you that Unit 01 is in the lake that's full of blood." She then composes herself while saying, "The children told me it had crashed in there when we were reunited, but that it's in a sort of fossilized state." She gets a bit worried as she says that last part."

Gendo looks at her with a slightly surprised expression for a brief second. He then quickly gets serious again as he nods. "At least we still have it. As soon as we get the help of the Government, we will work on restoring Unit 01."

Suddenly, Ritsuko, Shinji and Asuka walk in and the two pilots immediately go to Misato while Ritsuko goes and stands next to Maya, who's still at her post.

Misato looks at Asuka with concern. "What did Ritsuko say about your injuries?"

Asuka smiles while pointing at herself with her left thumb with confidence brimming. "That I'll be alright after I let my wounds heal for a month!" She then yells out happily while extending out her left arm towards the left side with her hand open to make a pose. "You see! Nothing can stop me!" As a result of hearing how proudly Asuka said that, everyone else laughs while watching.

Misato smiles, but then becomes concerned again when she notices Shinji. She then says to him, "How about you?"

Shinji gives her a light smile while looking a bit nervous. "Well... Dr. Akagi didn't check me, but it's because there's nothing physically wrong with me."

Misato gets a bit irritated and looks at Ritsuko. "But what about something mental?! Why didn't you examine if he's alright mentally?!"

Ritsuko makes a plain expression while being slightly irritated at Misato's outburst. "Because it doesn't seem like he has any mental issues. Anyway, if there are some problems with Shinji's mentality later on, he can come and see me." She then looks at Shinji with a faint smile. "Right, Shinji?"

Shinji smiles at her and nods while being a little confident. Gendo then calmly looks at Shinji and thinks, "I'm really sorry for putting you through so much Shinji." He suddenly makes an expression out of realization for a moment and then calmly looks at Misato while saying to her, "You can take the pilots to one of the apartments we have in the lower level, Colonel."

Misato looks at him and nods while smiling. "That's what I was planning on doing soon." She then looks at Shinji and Asuka while saying to Gendo, "They're obviously tired."

Rei makes a concerned expression as she watches them. Gendo then notices Rei's expression and makes a light smile while saying, "Rei. You'll be going with them." Him saying that causes the children to look at him while being very surprised that he just said that. Gendo then looks at Misato while being quite serious. "As long as it's alright with you, Colonel."

Misato smiles again while looking at him. "That's fine by me." She then looks at Asuka and Shinji while saying with slightly curiosity in her voice, "You guys are alright with that, right?" Shinji and Asuka then look at each other while still being a bit surprised. They both then look at Misato and nod while smiling.

Rei's surprised even more as she sees her fellow pilots response and then looks back at Gendo while being concerned. "Are you sure?"

Gendo looks at her and nods. "Yes. You all will live in the biggest apartment that we have and once Mr. Kaji returns, he'll obviously join you all." Everyone except Misato and Fuyutsuki then gasp while being surprised by what Gendo just said.

Asuka quickly turns to look at Misato and screams out in disbelief. "Kaji's alive?!"

Misato looks at her with a smile and nods at her while trying not to cry from joy. "Yes. He's back." This causes Asuka to scream out of joy while holding back tears as well. Shinji continues to be surprised as he looks at Misato and Asuka.

Rei suddenly walks up in front of Shinji and smiles at him while calmly saying, "It's because of your desire to return to be with everyone that he's back as well."

Shinji looks at her with an expression of disbelief. "Really?!"

Misato suddenly runs up to Shinji and hugs him. She holds him tightly while smiling as a few tears go down her face and whispers, "Thank you, Shinji. Thank you for bringing him back."

Shinji's stunned for a moment, but then smiles and says in a low volume, "You're welcome, Misato."

Asuka makes a concern expression as she watches them and thinks to herself, "So Misato missed him just as much as I did." She then pauses for moment while looking at the floor and keeps thinking. "No... I'm wrong. She missed him even more because she truly loves him. What I have for Kaji is an immature crush that I thought was love, but..." She then looks up and stares at Misato while smiling. "She truly loves him with all her heart."

That special moment soon ends and then Misato and the children all head to the apartment that they were given. Once they get there, they don't even think about doing anything but change their clothes and go to bed. Even without thinking about taking a shower or even eating since they are all so exhausted. They'll leave any thoughts of making the apartment officially their home for tomorrow and hopefully they will see all their friends and Kaji very soon. At the same time, Gendo and Fuyutsuki make their plan to go see the Governor and with that, the day that they thought would never end, let alone end happily, indeed did end on a bit of a happy note.

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

I know! This episode ended up being REALLY long while it took me three days to finally finish it. I had to fit in a whole bunch of explanation and bring people back so that's why it's this long. In the next episode, I'll bring the last bit of important characters back from the NGE series and see where I will be going from there. There will not be any real action until the Evas are rebuilt and I get some drama/romance through, so please bear with me for the next few episodes. But I will promise that it will not take me more than the 5th episode for me to have some action happen, so seriously, PLEASE BEAR WITH ME! *Laughs*

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	2. Episode 2

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

I just finished the first episode not too long ago and I will be working on this episode with the best of my abilities. Like I said in the first episode, there's going to be romance and drama for the next couple of episodes, but I don't know if this episode will actually have that. I'll be working on mostly having romantic and/or dramatic scenes until I feel like the action needs to start. In my 2nd Branch of NERV story, the time frame went a bit slow. By my calculations, the entire story-line was made up to happen in a time frame of roughly two months, give or take. But this story-line goes longer and there will be some considerable time skips for multiple reasons. If I went day by day like my first story more or less, then it will take me years to finish! *Laughs* I will like to thank Amitakartok for his help with my writing and I will do my best to improve myself as a writer. So, let's get started and I repeat, I DON'T own Neon Genesis Evangelion!

Episode 2: New Plan and New Life-Style

The scene starts with Misato being in her room while lying on the bed as she's sleeping. It's currently 5:13 in the morning and Misato sleeps while stretched out on her bed and she's snoring quite loudly. It can also be noted that Misato had retrieved her cross from the piece of wood that it had been nailed to and has it perched on the photo of her, Ritsuko and Kaji while being on top of the dresser that's at the end of her bed.

Suddenly, Misato's door slowly slides open and a man walks into her room while closing the door. He then slowly walks to Misato's bed and sits on it while his body is facing away from Misato as he's looking at her while she sleeps. It's then revealed that it's Kaji thanks to the light that's beaming from the window. *Side Note: Misato is wearing blue, denim short shorts and a white tank top while her blanket isn't covering her body and her stomach is showing. Kaji's wearing a button, white shirt and light brown, khaki pants while wearing a red tie that isn't tightened*

Kaji smiles as he keeps looking at Misato while she sleeps. He then thinks to himself, "It's been a long time since I've seen her sleeping. How I've missed watching her sleep." Misato continues on snoring while not making any changes to the position she's in. Kaji then chuckles to himself and leans forward to make his face close enough to her face that his lips almost touch her lips. Misato moves her head a little due to Kaji lightly breathing on her. Kaji smiles as he notices her slight movement and whispers, "Misato. Wake up, Misato."

Misato moves a little bit more as she groans and tries to open her eyes. She then says with a tired tone while her vision is blurred. "Huh?"

Kaji smiles at her while placing his arms on the bed as his face is still close to her's. "It's me."

Misato finally opens her eyes and then is in shock as she sees Kaji's face. She then yells out in a low volume, "K-K-Kaji?!"

Kaji chuckles while being amused by Misato's reaction. "You surprised?" Misato then suddenly lunges towards Kaji and embraces him as she passionately kisses him on the lips with her eyes closed. Kaji's caught off guard by Misato's sudden passion while being a bit surprised. He then closes his eyes as he kisses her back and holds her. Misato lies on her bed while bringing Kaji down with her. She continues to kiss him as tears of happiness go down her face. Kaji lies on top of her as he keeps kissing her and slowly opens his eyes to look at her. He sees that she's crying and stops kissing her with a bit of concern. "Why are you crying? Do I really suck at kissing that much?" He smiles at her.

Misato hurriedly opens her eyes to look at Kaji with an expression of disbelief and stops crying. She then gets quite irritated while smiling. "No, idiot! I missed you! That's why I'm freaking crying!"

Kaji laughs while getting off of Misato and lies next to her while looking at the ceiling. He then puts his arms behind his head as he turns his head to look at her with sincerity. "I'm sorry, Misato. I shouldn't have ever left your side."

Misato blushes a little bit while still smiling. She then moves and places her head on Kaji's chest while closing her eyes as she's facing him. "You're damn right, you shouldn't." She then opens her eyes and looks at him. "But I'm happy that you're back."

Kaji looks at her for a moment and then looks up at the ceiling as he smiles. "So am I."

Some time then goes by until its 9:24 in the morning. Shinji wakes up and leaves his room to go to the bathroom that's right next to his room while at the same time, Asuka walks out of her room, which is located right next to Misato's room. Asuka walks towards the kitchen that's connected with the living room and starts looking for something to eat while Shinji gets out of the bathroom. *The apartment is as follow; It's big enough to look like a house while being square-shaped. It has a total of five bedrooms, although currently one of the bedrooms is occupied with a lot of stuff that no person can currently stay in there. There are two bathrooms and each one is located on opposite ends of the apartment. The living room has a good amount of space and has two couches that are both 7 feet long while being adjacent to each other with a 50 inch television towards the middle. The kitchen is big enough to have a table that can sit ten people as it's located next to the door that leads outside. Also, there's a cement balcony that can be reached by going passed the living room and through a glass sliding door that allows them to see the Geofront. Misato's, Asuka's and Rei's bedroom are located on the left side of the apartment. There's a bathroom on that side while being between Asuka's and Rei's bedroom. Shinji's bedroom is obviously on the other side while the other bathroom is between his room and the other room that's full of stuff*

Shinji walks into the kitchen while wearing a dark grey T-Shirt and dark blue shorts. He then watches Asuka for a moment as she's looking for food and he stands at a small distance away from her. He then says with a polite tone, "You know that we have no food, right?"

Asuka stops looking for food and gets a bit irritated while looking down at the light blue tank top and red, short shorts that she's wearing. She then yells out without looking a Shinji. "I can see that!" She turns to look at him while making an upset expression. "But I'm hungry, so what do you expect me to do?!"

Shinji makes a slightly nervous expression while trying to smile. "Well... You can wait until we all go out later since we'll definitely have to go get food."

Asuka closes her good eye as she tilts her head back and yells out, "When the hell will that be?!" Kaji then suddenly appears behind Asuka while having his arms crossed and chuckles lightly. Shinji sees him and takes a step forward while being surprised. Asuka then looks at Shinji with concern due to her noticing his expression. "What's wrong?"

Shinji continues to be surprised for a moment and then smiles as he points at Kaji with his left hand. "Look who's here."

Asuka's confused by Shinji's request as she tilts her head to the left, which makes her hair slightly move towards that same direction. She then straightens her head while turning it towards the right to look behind her. After doing that, she sees Kaji, which causes her to be in shock for a little bit, and then screams out of joy. "Kaji!" After that outburst, Asuka runs to Kaji and hugs him with her head buried into his stomach.

Kaji looks at Asuka while having a bit of a surprised expression. He then makes a sincere smile as he places his right hand on top of her head and says with a caring tone, "It's good to see that you're alright."

Asuka starts to cry while yelling out from joy, "I'm so happy that you're alive!"

Kaji nods while still looking at Asuka. "Same here." He then looks up at Shinji with a joyous smile. "And I have you to thank, Shinji."

Shinji smiles nervously while turning his head slightly to the left. "Y-You don't have to thank me. I'm just happy that you're back as well." Kaji keeps smiling while still looking at Shinji.

Misato suddenly walks out of her room and sees that Asuka's crying while being held by Kaji. She then giggles as she stands next to Kaji. "I almost did the same thing when I saw him."

Kaji looks at her with a skeptical expression. "Really?" Misato then blushes a bit while being very nervous as she looks away from Kaji.

Asuka's now looking at Misato as she's still hugging Kaji. She then glances at Kaji and suddenly lets go of him while taking a step back. After doing that, she crosses her arms while giving a criticizing look towards both Kaji and Misato. "So... That means that you two did it, didn't you?"

Misato blushes even more as she looks at Asuka in surprise to what she just said. She then says in a defensive tone, "How did you come up with that?!"

Shinji watches on while feeling a bit nervous as he thinks to himself, "Here we go again."

Asuka's demeanor shows a hint of annoyance as her arms are crossed. She then stands sideways to have her body facing towards the kitchen, which is in the north side of the room. "Because it's obvious. When two people, who are used to doing it and haven't seen each other for a while, will have sex as soon as possible. Since we don't know when Kaji arrived, you two could have been doing it for quite a while."

Misato gets very irritated by Asuka's logic while glaring at her and thinks, "Although Kaji hasn't been here that long, either way, Asuka's still guessed right."

Kaji chuckles with his eyes closed for a brief moment. He then looks at Misato while smiling and contentedly says, "She more or less hit the nail on the head."

Misato slowly looks at him while still being irritated and says with her teeth gritted, "Why the hell did you admit to it?!"

Kaji laughs while tilting his head back with his eyes closed again. "Because there's no hiding it!" He then looks at Misato with a smile. "If it makes you feel better, I can tell you that Asuka threw herself on me once and wanted me to have sex with her."

Asuka's stunned by Kaji revealing such a personal matter while turning bright red. She then gets upset and yells out, "Why would you suddenly tell her that?!" She looks at Shinji for a moment and then looks back at Kaji. "Especially when Stupid Shinji is here!"

Kaji looks at Asuka with a nonchalant expression while smiling. "Calm down. I said it because since I admitted to Misato and I having sex, it's only fair that she knows about what you tried to do quite some time ago."

Misato's jaw drops after hearing what was just said as she's looking at Kaji. She then looks at Asuka and suddenly starts laughing while lifting her left hand slightly to point at Asuka. "Really?! I knew you were obsessed over Kaji, but I never thought you would take it that far!" She continues to laughs while putting her left arm down and tilts her head back with her eyes closed. "As if he would ever consider doing that with you in the fist place!"

Asuka gets even more upset and yells out, "It's not funny, Misato!" She looks at Kaji afterwards while trying not to cry. "And that wasn't alright to say, even if you think it was fair!"

Shinji looks at Asuka with concern brimming due to Asuka's outburst. He then looks at Misato, who's still laughing. This causes Shinji to get a bit irritated while thinking, "She shouldn't be laughing so much. I know she finds it funny, but she's going overboard."

After thinking that, Shinji glances at Asuka with a hint of confidence brimming and walks up next to her. He then looks at Kaji with a devious smile appearing out of nowhere and says, "Hey, Kaji. Did Misato tell you she kissed me, and that when the 3rd impact was over, we will do grown-up things together?"

Misato suddenly stops laughing while being shocked by what she just heard as she's looking at the ceiling. She then quickly looks at Shinji and yells out in disbelief, "You still remembered that?!"

Kaji's surprised as he looks at Misato and asks, "So what Shinji just said is true?!"

Misato looks at him with nervousness rising and stutters as she says, "W-Well... Y-Yeah..."

Asuka's also surprised at first while looking at all three of them. She then suddenly starts laughing while grabbing onto her stomach with both hands. At the same time, she leans forward as her good eye is closed. "Mein Gott, that's hilarious! You were judging me for throwing myself onto an older man, but you threw yourself to a minor!" She leans back while still laughing with her head tilted backwards. "This is too freaking funny!"

Misato becomes annoyed as she looks at Asuka with a glare and yells out, "Oh, shut up!"

After seeing Misato's reaction and hearing Asuka's laughter, both Kaji and Shinji start laughing as well. Suddenly, Rei walks into the room with confusion being displayed on her person and says with a bland tone, "What's so funny?" As she says that, it can be noted that Rei's wearing a grey, button shirt that is a bit too big on her. The length of it almost reaches her knees while she's only wearing panties, but can't be seen due to the shirt." *Side Note: Let's all keep in mind that Rei's concept for being shy about things like her physical appearance doesn't really exist*

Asuka looks at Rei while trying to stop laughing and says with a smile, "Only the funniest thing I've ever heard!" She continues to laugh while tilting her head back again.

Shinji looks at Rei with a light smile. "Don't worry about it, Ayanami. I'll tell you later."

Rei gets a bit confused as she looks at Shinji and politely says, "Ummm... Alright." She then notices that Kaji's standing next to Misato and says to him with a bland tone while bowing, "It's good to see you again, Mr. Kaji."

Kaji looks at her and smiles. "Same here. Also, you can just call me Kaji. You don't need to say 'Mr.'."

Rei's a bit surprised for a moment while straightening her posture. She then nods at him with a hint of nervousness showing.

After that, the scene suddenly changes to Gendo and Fuyutsuki, who are currently in the office of the Governor of Japan. There seems to be an intense atmosphere in the room as both parties are facing each other. The Governor is sitting at his desk, which is quite large for a desk while there's a giant pendulum swinging back and forth behind him. Gendo's currently sitting on a seat that's on the opposite side of the desk as Fuyutsuki's standing on his left. *Side Note: As an extra, the Governor is a man who looks like he could be in his early 50s as there aren't really any features that stick out too much*

Gendo's currently leaning forward while having his elbows placed on the desk. His hands are clasp together while they're in front of his mouth. At the same time, he's looking at the governor with a serious stare and says with a composed tone, "Do we have an understanding? Or do you still not trust us?"

The governor sighs as he closes his eyes while he's leaning his back against his seat. He then opens his eyes to look at Gendo and says with a stern tone, "Trust is earned. But... Since SEELE can't be trusted after they have left the facility they were once located in without telling me, you now have the support of the government to rebuild Tokyo-03."

Gendo nods with content. "Thank you." He pauses for a moment and then says with the same tone, "What about the reconstruction of the Evas?"

The governor makes a serious expression and says calmly, "Since SEELE can be a threat due to their connections with the other Branches, we will start funding the reconstruction of the three Evas."

Gendo sighs softly as he closes his eyes for a brief moment. He then looks at the Governor again. "Unfortunately, that won't be enough."

The governor's surprised as he leans forward with his right arm placed on the desk for a bit of leverage. "What do you mean?!"

Fuyutsuki responds with a calm tone as he puts his hands behind his back. "We have predicted that SEELE will come at us with their own Evas. Although one of our pilots was doing well against the Mass Production Evas, she still fell and by technicality, we didn't beat them. With three Evas we could beat nine of their Evas, but it wouldn't be guaranteed that it will end at that. Due to this concern, we need to increase our numbers."

The governor gets up from his chair as he slams his hands onto the desk. He then yells out with a stressed tone as he's looking at Fuyutsuki while leaning over the desk, "How much more will you be wanting to increase by?!"

Gendo states with an emotionless tone while looking at the governor. "As many as possible. This also includes the real Eva Unit 05 and its pilot."

The governor looks at Gendo while being shocked by what he just said. He then yells out, "But Eva Unit 05 and its pilot currently belong to the American Branch! There's no way they would agree on giving you their only Eva considering they have already lost the 2nd Branch! Anyway, that Eva is still a test type, what help would it be to you?!" After saying that, he pauses for a moment while taking a deep breath with his eyes closed. He then points his head down while calmly breathing out. After that, he looks up at Gendo with concern. "Are you sure about this?" Gendo responds by giving out a short nod without any hesitation. The governor then sighs in disappointment. "Well, I guess there's no other way, huh?" He looks at his desk as he sighs again.

Fuyutsuki looks at the governor with a serious expression. "There's no need to worry. We'll prevent SEELE from trying to make Instrumentality happen again, and we'll be sure to defeat them once and for all."

The governor looks up at Fuyutsuki with insecurity . "I just hope that you two won't try anything that will endanger the world again."

Gendo plainly responds. "Don't worry. My only goal now is to defeat SEELE."

The governor looks at Gendo and nods while being quite serious. "Alright, but there's only so much money that you'll get for the reconstruction of Tokyo-03, and if you plan on making more Evas then you better have the parts. Considering the situation we're in, it will be extremely difficult to get any since we don't know what Branches are on our side."

Gendo smirks, but it isn't seen by the Governor due to Gendo's hands still being in front of his mouth. "That's another thing you won't have to worry about. We just need the government to fund our efforts."

The governor nods again as he sits down on his seat with his arms resting on the desk. "Alright."

With that said, the scene changes once again with some time going by until its noon. At this moment, Misato's driving her car, which miraculously had survived the 3rd Impact with minimal damage. Kaji's sitting in the passenger seat while the three children are in the back seat. Shinji's sitting in the middle while Asuka's on his right and Rei's obviously on his left. They have just left the store after having bought food and some clothes due to them being in need of clothing. The store was being run by NERV personnel because the civilians who run the store hadn't returned yet. Apparently, some civilians have indeed returned, although they are currently being housed in the lower levels of NERV and some people are even seen outside as Misato drives by. Misato's wearing the same clothes that she always wears when she goes to NERV while Kaji is still wearing what he was wearing when he first appeared to Misato. In Shinji's case, he's wearing his school uniform due to him not having any sense of fashion, and the same thing for Rei. Asuka's wearing denim shorts and a red, tank top. She's the only one who cares about wearing something different among the children.

Shinji looks out the window that's to his right with a faint smile. "It's good to see that people are back."

Asuka glances at Shinji with her good eye while her right hand's on her right cheek to hold up her head and says with a plain tone, "Of course. It wouldn't be the same if they didn't return." She then looks towards the ceiling of the car with a bit of curiosity. "Now that I think about it, I should see if Hikari is back."

Shinji looks at Asuka while being surprised by what she just said. "That's right! I need to contact Touji and Kensuke to see if they're back!"

Misato looks at her rear-view mirror to look at Shinji with curiosity showing. "Shinji. You know that Touji's still in the NERV's medical facility, right?"

Shinji looks at Misato in disbelief. "Really?!"

Misato smiles and nods. "Yeah. He wasn't release before the 3rd Impact. I confirmed yesterday that he's still there, safe and sound."

Shinji smiles while being filled with joy as he leans a bit forward. "Can I go see him?!"

Misato nods while still smiling. "Sure. We have to go to NERV anyway, so we can see how things are going. We'll go there after we take the stuff home."

Kaji suddenly yells out in a panic while bracing himself as he's leaning his back against his seat. "Misato, watch the road!"

Misato's surprised by the sudden outburst as she looks forward. She then sees that she's almost off the road and desperately pulls the car back into the road while swerving a little. After doing that, she gasps for air due to the sudden rush. Asuka then gets irritated and yells out while leaning towards Misato, "Where the hell did you get your license?!" Misato responds with an irritated groan while watching the road.

Kaji nervously smiles as he looks at Misato and thinks, "I've wanted an answer for that question for a long time." He chuckles a little due to finding that thought quite funny.

Shinji looks at everyone, one by one until he sees Rei, who's looking out the window. He then becomes a bit concerned as he thinks to himself, "I wish that Rei would enjoy herself like we do. I don't want her to feel left out. If she starts to be more social, she'll be able to enjoy herself more and be able to be happy with us without having to ever be alone again."

With that thought completed, Shinji starts to display some sadness in his eyes while dropping his head a little. He then thinks of all the moments he's seen Rei being distant from others, and is filled with determination and thinks with confidence, "I'll make sure that Rei's happy! She helped me during the 3rd Impact and she's protected me a bunch of times! The least I can do is help her be happy!"

They continue on their way home and once they get there, they quickly put the food and clothes away. They also make something quick to eat since Asuka's still complaining about being hungry. As soon as they finish eating, they leave to go to NERV. They eventually get there and it's decided that Misato and Kaji will go to Central Dogma while the children go to see Touji. Asuka complained about having to go see Touji since she doesn't really like him for obvious reasons, but gets over it after a while and goes anyway. After they part ways, Misato and Kaji get to Central Dogma and see that everyone is working.

Misato looks around at everyone while smiling. "It looks like you're all working hard."

Maya turns to look at Misato while smiling. "We sure are. We've been working since early this morning to organize the moving procedure for the civilians to return, and where would they be living until the city is rebuilt."

Misato's filled with joy as she yells out, "Then that means the Governor agreed to help!"

Maya responds by nodding at Misato while still smiling. Misato then smiles and looks next to her, which is where Kaji's supposed to be, but he isn't. This causes her to look around with concern. "Kaji? Where did you go?" She then sees that Kaji's talking to Ritsuko, who's standing next to Aoba's post that's located on the right side as they're currently laughing. This irritates Misato quite a bit as she glares at Kaji and then marches up to both of them.

Kaji turns his head to look at Misato with a content smile. "Hey. I was just catching up with Ritsuko."

Misato stares at him with irritation being shown on her face. "Really? And you had to do that the moment you see her without telling me?"

Ritsuko giggles while covering her mouth with her left hand. She then puts her hand down and smiles at Misato. "Are you jealous, Misato?"

Misato's stunned by Ritsuko's question while taking a step back and blushes a little. She then gets into a defensive pose while yelling out, "No, I'm not! It just irritates me that he can be so sleazy sometimes!" She looks at Kaji with an annoyed glare after having said that.

Kaji tries to calm her down by gesturing his hands slightly in front of her with his eyes closed. "Now, now. I'm sorry that I use to do that, but I don't plan on acting like that anymore." He opens his eyes to look at her and smiles.

Misato groans a little while still being a little annoyed. After doing that, she calms herself by taking deep breaths as her eyes are closed. She then looks at Kaji and smirks. "If you really mean it then I believe you.

Kaji keeps smiling while saying with sincerity, "Well, I do."

Ritsuko interrupts them while being quite serious as she's looking at Misato. "By the way, Commander Ikari is waiting for you in his office." She then looks at Kaji. "He'll like to see you too."

Both Misato and Kaji nod at her while not having any issue to them being summoned by Gendo. Ritsuko then smiles slightly. "Alright. I'll see you both later." She's about to turn around, but stops herself and looks at them with a bit of concern. "Also, where are the pilots?"

Misato contentedly smiles at Ritsuko." Oh, they went to visit Touji. It seems like they had forgotten that he was in the medical facility."

Ritsuko makes a slightly surprised expression. "Really? Well that's a little ironic because there are two people who are already visiting him. They were ALSO summoned by Commander Ikari."

Misato becomes a bit concerned while being a little surprised. "Really? Who?"

Ritsuko puts her hands in her coat pockets as she smiles at Misato. "You all know who they are so I don't need to tell you. Commander Ikari will tell you what his plans are, and the reason he summoned those two."

Kaji watches on while being a bit curious as he thinks to himself, "His plan?" He then becomes quite serious while thinking, "I wonder what it could be."

Misato continues to be a bit concerned as she gives Ritsuko a light smile. "Alright. I'll go check with him." She then turns around and starts walking away. "See ya."

Kaji follows Misato while looking at Ritsuko and waves goodbye to her. He then turns his attention towards Misato so he doesn't lose track of her while Ritsuko watches them leave and thinks to herself with some concern showing, "I wonder if she'll be alright with his plan."

As Misato and Kaji go to see Gendo, the children have made it to the medical facility and are now getting ready to enter the room that Touji is in. Asuka decides to open the door and lead into the room, but then she's surprised when she sees that Hikari and Kensuke are in the room. Touji's lying on his bed while wearing a plain blue gown as the lower half of his body is covered by a white blanket. Meanwhile, Hikari's sitting on a chair that's to the right of Touji's bed with her eyes on him while Kensuke is standing on the other side of the bed as both of them are wearing their school uniform.

Asuka yells out of joy while being very happy to see her friend, "Hikari!"

Hikari's eyes widen as she's still looking at Touji. She then turns her attention to Asuka and suddenly smiles while yelling out in response, "Asuka!" Hikari hurriedly gets up from the chair and rushes towards Asuka.

Asuka takes a few steps forward and when she comes in contact with Hikari, she hugs her while smiling. "I'm so happy to see you!"

Hikari's trying not to cry out of joy as she's hugging Asuka as well. "Me too!" She then looks at Asuka in the eyes while still holding her. "I thought I was never going to see you or anyone ever again!"

Asuka's looking back at her while still smiling. "I know! I thought the same thing! But thanks to Shinji, we're all still here!" She then closes her eyes as she smiles again.

Kensuke's surprised after hearing what Asuka said and then looks at Shinji. "Really?! Shinji, did you save the day?!"

Shinji looks at Kensuke and then scratches the back of his head with his right hand as he smiles nervously. "Umm... Yeah."

Kensuke yells out of being impressed, "That's amazing!" As a result, Shinji gets more nervous while looking away from Kensuke

Asuka looks at Shinji with a hint of annoyance while letting go of Hikari. At the same time, she puts her hands on her hips and leans a bit forward while facing Shinji. "Don't get so full of yourself, idiot! You may have brought everyone back, but you better not let it get to your head!"

Shinji takes a step back while being even more nervous. "Uh... Alright, Asuka."

Touji closes his eyes and laughs while yelling out, "I can't believe that things still haven't changed!" He opens his eyes to look at the others. "I thought the day that Shinji would save the world, he woulda' grew a back bone, but that hasn't happened yet!" He keeps on laughing.

Hikari looks at Touji with a moderately upset expression. "Suzuhara! That wasn't nice to say!"

Shinji suddenly starts laughing a little as he tilts his head back. He then looks at Hikari with a smile. "It's alright, Hikari. That's just Touji being himself. I wouldn't want it any other way." He then stops smiling and looks at Touji's lower body with concern. "Now that I think about it, I haven't apologized for what happened before." He looks up at Touji.

Asuka sighs while rolling her eyes with irritation consuming her as she mumbles to herself, "Here we go again. Stupid Shinji saying he's sorry."

Touji gives Shinji a sincere smile. "Don't ya worry 'bout it, man! I know it wasn't ya fault!" He chuckles a little.

Shinji's momentarily surprised by what Touji just said. He then smiles at him as he gives him a short nod. "Thank you, Touji."

Touji keeps smiling as he sits up on the bed. "No problem, man." He then uncovers his lower body and shows the leg that was crippled has been replaced by an artificial leg that's very close to looking like a real leg.

Asuka sees Touji's leg with a bit of sympathy while thinking to herself, "Damn... He looks so pathetic with that leg. It makes me not want to insult him anymore." At the same time, Shinji looks at Touji's artificial leg with sadness overtaking him.

Touji makes an annoyed expression and yells while tilting his head back with his hands placed on his head, "Ahhh! Don't ya do that!" He then looks at Shinji while putting his hands down. "I told ya not to worry and I mean it!" After saying that, he gives Shinji an intense stare with determination being displayed.

Shinji makes a surprised expression at first, but then makes a light smile at him and nods. "Alright."

Touji contentedly smiles. "Good." He then tries to get up.

Hikari takes a step towards him while extending her arms towards him a little with concern brimming. "Don't try to get up! You haven't practiced walking that much!"

Touji smiles at her. "Don't ya worry 'bout that. I've practiced enough to walk, but I gotta go slowly when I walk." He then gets up off the bed and looks at everyone." Anyways, I'm actually supposed to be released today."

Rei calmly says with a plain expression, "In that case, we should all head to Central Dogma. I know that Colonel Katsuragi would be happy to see the three of you." The others look at her while being a bit surprised. They then all look at each other while smiling and nod.

With that decided, they let Touji get changed before they leave the room and then head to Central Dogma. As they head over there, Misato and Kaji are in Gendo's office and they were just told what happened with the Governor of Japan.

Misato makes a serious expression as she's looking at Gendo while standing at the other end of his desk with her arms crossed. "So from what you just told us, we have the support of the government. They will pay for the reconstruction for the city, and they'll even help us repair the Evas, which includes the remake of Unit 00."

Gendo's sitting down while being in his usual position as he's peering at Misato with a calm demeanor. "Up to that point, you are correct."

Kaji's standing on Misato's left side as he's a bit concerned. "Is there something else?" He quickly looks back and forth between the two commanding officers.

Gendo nods with a hint of seriousness showing. "Yes, there is. But this is by my decision."

Misato makes a concern expression while taking a step forward. "What is it?"

Fuyutsuki responds while standing on Gendo's left as he looks at Misato with no real emotion, "I'll answer that." Both Kaji and Misato then look at him with a good amount of seriousness. Fuyutsuki then takes a deep breath and exhales out. After that, he firmly says, "It has been decided that we will make more Evas as the repairs are made to both the city and our current Evas."

Misato gasps a little while being quite surprised by what Fuyutsuki just said. She then places her hands on the desk while leaning towards Gendo with an upset glare. "Are you serious?! How the hell are we going to do that?! And who's going to pilot the new Evas after they're made?!"

Gendo remains calm and states without hesitating, "We will use as many parts of the Mass Production Evas as possible. It will help with the repairs and the construction. We also have the remains of Eva Unit 03 that was salvaged after its attack. We will remake it and make as many other Evas as possible." He then pauses for a second as he softly sighs with his eyes closed. After that, he opens them to look at Misato again with a serious stare. "Now to answer the question of who will be the pilots."

Before he's able to continue, Shinji and the others walk into the office. They stop behind Misato and Kaji while standing next to each other. *Side Note: The order they are in is as written from left to right; Kensuke, Rei, Shinji, Asuka, Hikari and Touji*

Misato turns her head and sees the children. She becomes even more surprised than before when she sees Touji, Kensuke and Hikari. This causes her to turn her head to look back at Gendo as she makes an expression of disbelief while pointing at Touji, Hikari and Kensuke with her right hand's thumb. "So they're the new pilots?!"

Gendo calmly nods. "I figured it would be best to use children that are already well associated with the current pilots."

Kensuke overhears what Gendo says as his jaw drops. He then yells out while being happily surprised, "Really?!" He then places his right hand on his chest to point at himself. "I'm going to be a pilot?!"

Gendo nods at Kensuke. "That is correct. I chose you and Ms. Horaki due to your relationship with most of the other pilots. Also, Mr. Suzuhara will be reinstated as a pilot."

Hikari makes a worried expression while saying with a nervous tone, "Ummm... Excuse me. A-Are you sure that it will be a good idea to have me as a pilot? And don't you think that I should ask my father first?"

Gendo calmly responds while looking at Hikari. "I already spoke to him about it last night. He said it would be up to you to make a decision."

Hikari hesitates while thinking to herself as she's kind of freaking out, "Oh my God! What should I do?! I never once thought of piloting! I never even asked Asuka how it feels to pilot!" Touji then looks at her while grabbing her left hand with his right as he's very determined. Hikari then looks at him with a surprised expression.

Touji states to Hikari with a sincere tone, "Listen, Class Rep. If ya don't wanna pilot then ya don't have to. But... If ya decide to pilot, I promise that I'll make sure that nothin' happens to ya."

Hikari suddenly blushes as she keeps looking at him and thinks, "That's the first time Suzuhara has ever said anything like that to me!"

Asuka makes a slightly surprised expression for a moment while looking at them. She then smiles as she thinks, "It's about time he admits his feelings."

Hikari looks to the side for a moment while trying to stop blushing. She then looks at Touji again with a hint of confidence brimming. "I'll pilot!"

Misato's been watching them and when she hears what Hikari says, she takes a step forward while being quite concerned. "Are you sure, Hikari?"

Hikari looks at Misato while still being quite confident. "Yes! I'm completely sure!"

Kaji looks at Hikari and then looks at Touji while having a curious expression. "And that obviously means you're in as well."

Touji looks at Kaji and nods. "Ya bet I am!"

Kensuke steps in front of Touji and yells out of joy while pointing at himself with his left hand, "So am I! I've always wanted to pilot the Eva!"

Shinji sighs while rolling his eyes and thinks to himself. "Sadly, It's true..."

Kaji looks at Misato with a smile. "Then it's settled."

Misato sighs while dropping her head down. "I guess so." She then lifts up her head and looks at Kaji with her own smile.

Gendo quietly watches them for a moment. He then says with a stern tone, "Then you three better go home and get your stuff together." Everyone except Fuyutsuki then looks at Gendo with a confused expression. Gendo then states plainly, "The reason why I say that is because you all will be living together in Colonel Katsuragi's current residence." After that, everyone except Fuyutsuki respond at the same time while being surprised, "What?!" Gendo then says with a composed tone, "Calm yourselves. This is for the benefit of us knowing where you all are at. It will be less complicated this way."

Rei makes a concerned expression as she takes a few steps forward. "Is this the reason why you had me move in with them?"

Gendo looks at Rei with a serious expression and nods. "That's correct."

Asuka yells out in distress while gesturing a bit with her right hand, "But there's only five bedrooms in that apartment and one of them is full of stuff! How's everyone going to live there?!"

Gendo turns his gaze towards Asuka while maintaining a serious expression. "Each bedroom can fit two people easily. You all have to figure out who will be with whom."

Everyone except Fuyutsuki hesitantly nods in agreement. Gendo then nods out of approval. "Then that is all. You are all dismissed." Everyone except Fuyutsuki nod again and they all then exit the room.

Fuyutsuki looks at Gendo after the others leave with concern. "You mind telling me why you didn't tell them about Eva Unit 05 and its pilot."

Gendo glances at Fuyutsuki while placing his hands on his desk and gets up. "Simple." He then turns to face Fuyutsuki while putting his hands behind his back. "It hasn't been confirmed that America will agree to send Unit 05 and its pilot. It may take a while before we hear a response due to the originally designed Unit 05 just being remade not too long ago in the 5th Branch. This being the result of the incident that occurred in the 2nd Branch. But I'm pretty sure that they will agree... We just need to give them time. In the meantime, we will start the repairs for our Evas and make the new Evas."

Fuyutsuki nods in agreement without having any issue with what Gendo had just told him.

After that, Touji, Kensuke and Hikari are taken to see their families to get some of their stuff to move in. Hikari is told to bring Pen-Pen, who's been living with Hikari for a while now and Pen-Pen's happy to see Misato and the others. They then head home and decide on who will be sharing rooms. Although Misato obviously wanted Kaji to be in the room with her, he had told her that it wouldn't be a good idea since two of the children of opposite sex will end up in a room together.

As a result, it was decided that Touji and Kensuke would share the room that use to belong to Rei. Asuka and Hikari would share Asuka's room while Misato and Rei would share Misato's room, which automatically includes Pen-Pen since he loves sleeping in Misato's room. This leaves Shinji's room obviously being occupied by Kaji and Shinji.

With that settled, they all spend the rest of the day together and when the day is over, they go to their respective rooms. This is just the beginning of a new experience for everyone and they'll be experiencing more new things while also experiencing some old things.

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Oh my God, this episode is long too! To be this long and not have a fighting scene is quite sad, but once again, I had to write as much as I needed for it to work out as I have planned. At this rate, I will get to the fighting in a couple of episodes, but until then, please be patient. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do a time-skip in the next episode, but I don't know how I'm going to fit that in. Anyway, I hope you guys liked my episode and I reassure you that your patience will pay-off.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	3. Episode 3

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

Here we go. This episode will be difficult because I don't really have the entire image of this episode in my mind, but I will try to make it a good episode. Also, after seeing how my first two episodes are really long and they're even longer than a lot of the episodes from the 2nd Branch story, I might make this episode shorter, but I doubt it will be that short. In a way, I should think that the longer the episode the better, but people have different opinions of well, if I feel like the episode needs more to it then I will write as much as it's needed. Enjoy the episode and I still don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Episode 3: True Feelings and Developed Feelings

A couple of weeks pass and during that time, the children had grown accustomed to their new living conditions and are starting to get use to each other. Although there are some moments where Asuka gets into an argument with Touji because that's the way those two are. Everyone is able to live quite peacefully while the reconstruction of the city and the progress of repairing the Evas. This includes the making of the new Evas, which is going well. As the reconstruction has been moving along, all the civilians had returned to Tokyo-03 and they are doing everything they can to help out. While the children wait for their Evas to be completed, they go through synchronization tests to see where they stand as individual pilots. Even though Touji hasn't had that much experience when he was first made to be a pilot and while Hikari and Kensuke will be going through their first test, they are encouraged by the others that they will do pretty well. Right now, we see that Shinji, Touji and Kensuke are changing into their plugsuits in the boy's locker room, and Asuka, Rei and Hikari are in the girls' locker room.

Shinji's currently putting on his plugsuit while looking at the floor. He spaces out a bit while thinking, "I didn't think I would actually have to wear this so soon." He looks up at the ceiling while having the plugsuit half-way on and thinks, "I guess this proves that I'll have to pilot again..." Shinji's then filled with sadness as he completely puts the plugsuit on and fasten it to his body.

Touji had just put his plugsuit on, but it hasn't been fastened onto his body since he's currently helping Kensuke put on his plugsuit. Touji's plugsuit has the color light grey on the upper part of the plugsuit and blue for the rest of the plugsuit except for the arms that has some black on them. It's similar to Shinji's plugsuit except that Shinji's has white on the upper part instead of light grey. Kensuke wears a plugsuit that has dark green on the upper part and light green for the rest except for the some of the arms due to all of the children's plugsuits having black on the arms.

Kensuke gets a bit irritated due to his plugsuit being stuck onto his legs as he tries to put it on. "Oh come on! How hard can this be?!" He looks up and sees that Shinji already has his on while Touji's just one step away from having his officially on. Kensuke then yells out of annoyance and jealousy, "How the hell do you guys do this?!"

Touji makes an aggravated expression while sighing and rolling his eyes. He then looks at Kensuke and yells back, "Come on, man! It ain't that hard!"

Kensuke's about to respond, but loses his balance due to his legs still being tangled and falls face first onto the floor. Both Shinji and Touji watched Kensuke hit the floor with sympathy as they say at the same time, "Oooh! That had to hurt."

Kensuke stays lying on the floor while his glasses had come off and lay beside his left. He then turns his head to look at his glasses and mumbles to himself with depression brimming, "Why me...?"

Touji suddenly starts laughing due to it finally hitting him that Kensuke falling face first is funny. As he does that, he places his left hand over his forehead while tilting his head back with his eyes closed and yells out, "That shit was funny! Way to go, Kensuke!" He continues to laugh.

Shinji walks up next to Touji's left due to him having been behind him and leans towards Kensuke with concern. "You okay, Kensuke?"

Kensuke grabs his glasses with his left hand and then pushes himself off the floor as he puts on his glasses. As soon as he gets up, he looks at Shinji with a slightly embarrassed expression. "Yeah... I just wish that I wasn't having such a hard time with the plugsuit."

Touji had stopped laughing and presses the button to fasten his plugsuit as he's plainly looking at Kensuke and Shinji. "It ain't that hard, man. Just pull up the plugsuit to cover ya body and press the button on ya wrist."

Kensuke looks at Touji with a bit of irritation. "I know! I wasn't having a problem with that. It was that I kept getting my leg stuck while trying to pull the plugsuit up." After saying that, he looks at the plugsuit and pulls it. The plugsuit then covers his body and Kensuke presses the button to fasten it. He then smiles as he looks down at his body with his arm stretched out downward. "Finally!" He laughs while making a proud pose and then looks at Shinji with excitement. "How do I look?!"

All Shinji can do is smile at Kensuke as he closes his eyes and gives him a thumbs up with his right hand. That gesture causes Kensuke to let out a big smile at Shinji while getting even more excited as he throws his now clenched hands up towards the ceiling. "Awesome!" He puts his hands down and runs towards Touji. Once he reaches him, he wraps his right arm around Touji's neck while being on Touji's left. Kensuke then looks at him with his face being a bit too close to Touji's. "Now that I'm a part of the team, things will be getting very exciting! I can't wait to pilot an Eva that's going to be specifically made for me!"

Shinji makes a nervous smile while looking at Kensuke. "Um... You do know the Eva that will be made for you will be based on the design of Eva Unit 04, right?"

Kensuke looks at Shinji while still being excited. "I know! But in a way, it will be made just for me! That's what I like about this because I will finally have my own Eva!"

Touji's becomes very irritated while feeling uncomfortable about Kensuke being too close to him. He then yells out with his eyes closed and tilts his head upward, "Kensuke! Get the hell off me!"

Kensuke lets go of Touji while taking a few steps back as he's smiling at Touji. "Okay, Touji. You don't need to yell." He chuckles lightly.

Shinji laughs while looking at them. He then smiles while he turns to face the exit. "Alright, guys. Let's go." He then walks towards the exit as both Touji and Kensuke look at each other with determination after seeing Shinji leave. After doing that, they quickly exit the room and follow Shinji to the testing room.

As the boys leave the locker room and head towards the testing room, the girls are still in their locker room as they are almost ready.

Asuka slowly takes off the bandages that are on her right arm and her left eye while she's sitting on a bench that's installed into the room. She almost has her plugsuit completely on while looking down at the bandages that are now on the floor. She then looks up at the mirror that's inside the door of her locker and sees that her eye and arm have completely healed. This causes her to smile as she stands up and quickly finishes putting on her plugsuit.

Hikari turns her attention to Asuka and then happily smiles due to seeing Asuka without her bandages. As she does this, it can be noticed that Hikari's already wearing her plugsuit that's the color orange with black on the arms while both Rei and Asuka have the same plugsuits they always wear. Hikari then says with an immense amount of happiness, "Your wounds have healed!"

Asuka looks at Hikari with a content smirk after putting on her plugsuit and nods. "Uh-huh." She then closes her locker and heads towards the exit while not noticing that Rei's right behind her. Rei then looks at Asuka with no real emotion being displayed as she grabs onto Asuka's left arm with her right hand. This action startles Asuka a little and then looks at Rei with a surprised expression. She then looks down and sees that Rei's hand is holding her arm and gets a bit irritated while pulling her arm out of the grasp of Rei's hand. She then turns to face Rei and says with an annoyed tone, "What's the big idea, First?!"

Rei pulls her hand to her side and responds with a calm tone. "I want to confirm something."

Asuka's still a bit irritated, but calmly responds while tilting her head slightly to the left with curiosity, "And what would that be?"

Rei blushes slightly while looking to the left out of the corner of her eyes. "What is Ikari to you...?"

Asuka takes a step back while blushing a little as well. She then leans a bit towards Rei while clenching her fists and says with a defensive tone, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

All that Hikari can do is watch her fellow pilots while being slightly stunned.

Rei looks at Asuka with a bit of determination showing while not blushing anymore. "I want to know if you have feelings for Ikari just as I have feelings for him."

Asuka pulls her head back a little as she turns bright red while being stunned by Rei's statement. She then gets even more defensive as she leans a bit more towards Rei and yells out, "What would ever make you think that I have feelings for an idiot like him?!"

Rei plainly states, "Because when you kissed him, you actually enjoyed it and that scared you because you thought you only had feelings for Mr. Kaji."

Asuka's surprised by what Rei just said as her mouth is open a little due to how surprised she is. She then snaps out of it by shaking her head rapidly with her eyes closed. This results in the redness in her face to disappear and then Asuka stares Rei down while being upset. "How the hell do you know about that?!"

Rei answers with a firm look on her face. "During the 3rd Impact, I was able to see the desires of others and see some of their memories. This was because I had fused with Lilith. I saw the memory of you and Ikari as a result." She gives Asuka a light smile as her eyes glisten a little. "You enjoyed it and so did Ikari."

Asuka blushes as she's shocked from what she just heard. She then looks at the floor as she thinks, "Shinji liked it? Well of course he would. It was a kiss from me after all, but I wasn't too sure." She then smiles a little.

Rey responds without hesitation while momentarily losing her smile. "I can accept you being with Ikari, but I want you to be honest about your feelings for him. Insulting him constantly and hoping that one day he will make the first move isn't like him."

Hikari takes a step towards Rei with a bit of concern rising from her person. "But Rei, you just said you have feelings for Shinji. Wouldn't you want to be with him?"

Rei gazes at Hikari and then closes her eyes while calmly saying with a smile appearing on her face again, "I would indeed enjoy that, but Ikari needs someone who will make him a better person." She opens her eyes and looks at Asuka. "It will have to be you, Soryu. Your feelings for him are quite strong and it would be best if he's with you because with me, he would remain the same. Even though that isn't so bad, but he still needs to grow more. That way, he won't always be so sad."

Asuka looks up at Rei while having a surprised expression. "So you're saying I'm the better choice...?"

Rei continues to smile. "Aren't you always the better choice?" She then giggles a little.

Asuka looks at her with an expression of disbelief for a moment. She then smiles and makes a proud pose. "Of course I am! Any guy would love to have me as their girl!" After saying that, she laughs proudly.

Hikari giggles as she puts her hands behind her back while looking at Asuka and thinks to herself, "She technically admitted her feelings for Shinji. I thought this day would never come."

Rei keeps smiling while still looking at Asuka and thinks to herself, "Although Ikari has helped me quite a bit with trying to be happy, I've been giving it a lot of thought of who would be better for him, so that he can be happy. I would have really enjoyed to have been with him, but it would be best that he and Soryu are together. She'll help him grow as a person and he'll help her be more open and even she'll be happy in the end."

Asuka stops laughing and looks at Rei and Hikari with a determined expression. "Alright! It's time to go! Everyone is waiting for us!" She then turns and walks out the exit as both Rei and Hikari follow her out the exit.

The girls head to the testing room while all being optimistic. Soon, all the pilots go through a simple synchronization test in their respective entry plugs, which Touji, Kensuke and Hikari also have since the entry plugs were the first things built with the funding from the government. At the end of the test, the results were told to the pilots. For the first time pilots, it wasn't so bad either. Shinji held the highest sync ratio, which was 94%. Asuka wasn't far behind with 92% and actually didn't complain that much about Shinji being first, which was a shock to everyone. Rei was next with 85%, then Touji was lucky enough to have 48%. This might have to do with his prepping with Unit 03 before it was taken over by Bardiel. Kensuke was able to achieve 37%, which for the dumbest of reasons, he felt really proud about himself and Hikari had a sync ratio of 31%, which was acceptable.

After hearing the results, the children went to the locker rooms and quickly got changed. After seeing how well the children had done, Misato and Kaji had decided to take them all out to eat. This turns out to be quite an interesting situation for the children. For a funny reason, they had gone to a pretty expensive restaurant that happens to have tables that only sit four people each and this causes them to split up into two groups.

It's decided that Kaji, Misato, Shinji and Asuka are in one table while the table next to their table will have Touji, Kensuke, Hikari and Rei seated there. Now this is where it gets interesting because Misato decides to sit next to Kaji, which causes Shinji to sit next to Asuka. In the other table, Hikari makes it a little obvious to Touji that she wants him to sit next to her, so he does. This means Kensuke is sitting next to Rei. Shinji's table is on the left side of Touji's table, so that means that none of them is behind each other. Shinji is sitting on Asuka's left while Kaji sits on Misato's right, which means Misato is sitting in front of Asuka and Kaji is in front of Shinji. Touji sits on Hikari's left while Kensuke sits on Rei's right. *Side Note: The way the tables are position is that if Kensuke wanted to, he could give Shinji a High-Five without needing to move from his seat. This means they are actually next to each other with the exception of a gap being between them for people to walk through. They're all wearing street clothing as the time is 5:30 PM*

At this moment, Misato's flirting with Kaji while being a little drunk and Kaji makes some jokes that aren't that bad, but does involve some mature content that shouldn't be said around the children. As example, Asuka makes a slightly annoyed expression as she watches them and thinks to herself while clenching her right hand into a fist as it's on the table. "I actually thought Kaji was more mature than that, but I guess I was wrong! He's almost as bad as Misato!" She then looks at Misato.

Misato yells out while she points at Kaji as she's laughing, "You remember that joke about the dog and the peanut butter?!"

Kaji laughs while tilting his head back. "Of course I do! How could I forget?!"

Asuka gets a bit more irritated while she keeps thinking to herself as she's glaring at the two of them. "It seems like they really are perfect for each other! I seriously need to work on my taste in guys!"

Shinji looks at Asuka while being a bit concerned as he's holding up his head by having his right hand under his chin. He then thinks to himself, "It seems like Asuka is getting annoyed. I wonder if it would be a good idea to ask her to come outside with me, so she can calm herself down."

Asuka's still irritated while still watching Misato and Kaji. She then looks at Shinji and notices that he's looking at her. This causes Asuka to think back about what Rei said and blushes a little. She then nods to herself with determination being displayed while she takes a deep breath with her eyes closed. After doing that, she looks at Shinji and says in a commanding tone, "Shinji!"

Shinji's eyes widen due to Asuka's tone with a hint of nervousness showing. "Y-Yes, Asuka?"

"Let's go outside! I need a break from these two!" After saying that, Asuka turns and gets out of her chair.

Shinji watches Asuka while being quite nervous. He then nods and gets up from his chair. "Um... Okay."

Asuka starts to walk as she yells out while maintaining a commanding tone, "Come on then!"

Shinji obediently follows her while thinking to himself, "Well that saved me from having to ask her." After thinking that, he smiles lightly and continues to follow Asuka. Misato and Kaji both watch them walk away. They then look at each other and nod while smiling as if they had planned the entire thing.

Rei also watches Shinji and Asuka leave the room while thinking to herself, "I do hope she tells him how she feels."

Touji suddenly says while being very hyper and making random gestures. "Though I don't care that much 'bout pilotin', I'd still do it if it's to help out my friends!" He then looks directly at Hikari. "And also to be sure that nothin' happens to ya, Class Rep." He smiles.

Hikari blushes a little while looking away from him. "Thanks, Suzuhara." She then looks at him while nervously saying, "Um... Can you do me a favor though?"

Touji makes a curious expression with his eyes focused on her as he's still being hyper. "What ya want?! Just name it!"

Hikari nervously scratches the left side of her forehead with her left index finger. "Well umm... Can you try to call me by my name? I don't really mind that you call me "Class Rep", but I would prefer..."

Touji interrupts her while smiling. "No prob, Hikari!"

That quick response causes Hikari to be surprised while blushing a bit more and then smiles at Touji. "Thank you."

Touji continues to smile for a little bit longer. He then calms himself a bit and leans towards Hikari to have his face close to her's. "Now, can ya do me a favor?"

Hikari blushes a lot more due to his closeness and slowly nods. Touji then turns a little bit red as he says with a slight strain in his voice, "Will ya be my girlfriend?"

Hearing that question completely surprises Hikari and starts hyperventilating a bit. After a few seconds, Hikari tries to regain some composure as she smiles at him and says with a happy tone, "Yes! I would love to be your girlfriend!"

Touji smiles and then kisses Hikari on the lips, whom is immediately filled with joy as she closes her eyes and kisses him back.

Kensuke smirks as he pushes his glasses into place with his right and thinks to himself. "It's about time."

Rei watches them while being amazed at how they are expressing their feelings and thinks to herself, "I wonder how that feels like."

Kensuke notices Rei's expression while putting his hand down and looks at her with a smile. "Random, huh?"

Rei looks at him with curiosity. "What is?"

Kensuke glances at Touji and Hikari, who are still kissing, and looks at Rei again while still smiling. "That people can just suddenly express their feelings and then it can turn out to be such a heartfelt scene." Rei keeps looking at Kensuke while being surprised by what he said. Kensuke then sighs while he looks at Touji and Hikari again. He then makes a moderately sad expression. "I wish I could express my feelings to a girl and she'll feel the same way as I do. Then we'll have that special moment."

Rei blushes while being even more surprised and thinks to herself, "What he just said was incredible! I can really tell that he wishes for closeness, just as I do!" She makes a calm expression while still looking at Kensuke.

Kensuke turns his head to look at her with concern. "Something wrong, Ayanami?"

Rei smiles while trying not to blush as she says, "You can call me Rei."

Kensuke turns a little red while being very surprised and thinks to himself, "Really?! She wants me to call her by her first name?! But she had never once said to me to call her that!" He blinks rapidly for a moment and then thinks, "Shit... I rarely hear Shinji ever call her by her first name!"

Rei keeps smiling while hesitating a little. "Do you think... We could spend some time together? I would like to get to know you better. We have been classmates for a long time, but I don't know much outside of what you obviously enjoy."

Kensuke nervously nods while still being a bit surprised by her sudden interest in him. "That's fine with me. Whenever you want, we can hang out."

Rei nods at him while still smiling. "Good." After answering, it's revealed that Touji and Hikari had stopped kissing. They are now watching Kensuke and Rei while being a bit surprised at what just transpired. They then smile and look at each other.

After that, the focus suddenly changes to Asuka and Shinji being outside while being in the parking lot that's in front of the restaurant. Asuka is searching for Misato's car while Shinji's still following her as there are quite a bit of vehicles in the parking lot. She then finds the car and sits down on the hood as she's facing forward. As Asuka's sitting, Shinji standing on her right while leaning against the car.

Shinji looks at her out of the corner of his eyes with concern gleaming while his body is facing forward as well and asks, "Are you alright, Asuka?"

Asuka has a slightly annoyed expression and responds without looking at Shinji. "I'm fine! I'm just getting over something really stupid!"

Shinji becomes a bit confused due to Asuka's response as he tilts his head to the left. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but what is it exactly that you're getting over?"

Asuka looks at Shinji with annoyance being displayed. "What are you, stupid? Didn't you see how Kaji and Misato were acting?"

Shinji smiles while being a bit nervous and shuts his eyes. "They're just happy that things are so peaceful." He opens his eyes to look at her. "Anyway, you know how Misato is."

Asuka gets even more annoyed as she leans towards him and yells out, "I know how Misato is, but I didn't know Kaji can be so immature!" She then groans while putting her hands on her head and pulls her head back as she yells out, "I had a crush on him because I thought he was so mature and good-looking!" She then pulls her head down to her legs while still yelling, "I even thought I was in love with him, but now I know I was just being as stupid as you normally are!"

Shinji makes a moderately irritated expression as he stares at her performance and thinks in a sarcastic way, "Thanks a lot." He then looks away from her.

After a little, Asuka realizes what she just said and opens her eyes while looking at Shinji with concern brimming. She sees his irritation and gets a bit sad as she thinks to herself, "Great...! I just insulted him and I was supposed to try not to do that anymore!" She then becomes concern again while moving her hands from her head and places them on the car to turn herself to face Shinji. After doing that, she says with an apologetic tone while looking down at her hands, "I'm sorry for saying that."

The irritation leaves Shinji's face as he looks at Asuka with surprise due to her suddenly apologizing. He then smiles at her while saying with content, "It's fine, Asuka. I should be use to it."

Asuka's eyes widen and looks at Shinji with a hint of surprise. She's then overcome with sorrow while slowly shaking her head a little bit. "Well, you shouldn't." She then gets a little closer to him while determination takes over. "I promise that I'll do my best not to insult you anymore."

Shinji's surprised by what she just said and this causes him to lose his smile for a moment. He then happily smiles at Asuka and nods. "Alright."

Asuka smiles back at him as she thinks to herself, "Good." She then realizes something as she looks down at her hands. After doing that, she starts to twiddle her fingers a bit as she keeps thinking, "Should I tell him how I feel? I wonder if it'll be too random. He could reject me because he might have feelings for Wonder-girl like she does for him."

Shinji makes a concerned expression as he's looking at Asuka. "Are you still bothered by the whole thing with Kaji and Misato?" In response, Asuka shakes her head without looking at him. Shinji then gets a bit closer to her without thinking while still being concerned. "Then what's wrong?"

Asuka slowly looks up at Shinji while trying not to blush as she's a bit annoyed. "I'll tell you, but you better answer the question that comes afterwards." She then gives him an intense glare. "And if I don't like the answer, I'm going to kick you in the nuts."

Shinji's scared by Asuka's threat while leaning a bit back. He then hesitantly responds while still being a bit scared. "A-Alright. So what is it?"

Asuka sighs and closes her eyes while trying to muster up some courage. She then opens her eyes to look at him and blushes slightly as she says, "Shinji. I've..."

Shinji's confused by what Asuka's trying to say while tilting his head to the left and thinks, "She what?"

Asuka starts to breathe heavily while trying to concentrate on what she wants to say. "I've had..."

Shinji continues to be confused while raising his left eyebrow a little and thinks to himself, "What could it be that she's having such a hard time saying?" He then becomes a bit worried while looking towards the right out of the corner of his eyes and thinks, "Hopefully she doesn't want me to do something humiliating. Because if I don't do it, she'll kick me in the nuts..."

Asuka looks down at her hands and clenches them into fists while getting irritated with herself as she thinks, "Why can't I say it?! Did I really think that I would never say it?! Was Wonder-girl, right?! Was I really waiting for Shinji to make a move?!" She then closes her eyes while thinking, "But obviously he would never say it because that's the way he is! So, I have to say it!"

With the completion of that thought, Asuka opens her eyes with determination brimming. She then looks at Shinji, who has been waiting patiently and tries to say it again. "Shinji... I've had feelings for..." Asuka suddenly stops and this causes her to drop her head down as she's stressed out while thinking, "Damn it! I almost said the most important part! Why did I have to stop?!"

Shinji's completely confused as he turns his attention back to Asuka and leans towards her a bit more. They're now about two inches away from coming in contact and then Shinji suddenly smiles at her. "It's alright, Asuka. If you're having such a hard time saying it, then don't say it."

Asuka suddenly realizes something with her eyes widening a bit as she thinks, "That's it!" She then smiles while saying in an innocent tone, "Shinji, do me a favor."

Shinji's filled with curiosity due to the way Asuka's voice sounded when she said that. "What is it?"

Asuka continues smiling while saying sweetly, "Close your eyes."

Shinji gets a bit confused as he hesitantly responds, "Umm... Okay." He then nervously closes his eyes while thinking, "Could it be that she couldn't say it because I was looking at her?"

Asuka blushes a little as she slowly lifts up her right hand off the car as she thinks to herself, "Do it quick, Asuka." She then licks her lips for a moment and quickly pinches Shinji's nose with her right hand while leaning towards him. Shinji's eyes instantly open as he felt his nose being pinched and looks at Asuka with a shocked expression. Asuka then closes her eyes without noticing that Shinji has opened his eyes and kisses him while blushing at the same time. Shinji then makes a stunned expression as his eyes widen and blushes. Asuka keeps her lips connected with Shinji's lips and her eyes are still closed.

Shinji thinks to himself while still being kissed by Asuka, "I remember this. Although she had said it was to kill the time, I still really enjoyed this feeling." He then smiles a little while closing his eyes and presses his lips against Asuka's to return the kiss back to her. Asuka slowly opens her eyes to look at him due to her feeling his lips press back against her's as she blushes a bit more. She then slowly moves away from Shinji to stop the kiss while letting go of his nose and putting her hand down.

As a result, Shinji takes in a deep breath due to him not being able to breathe because Asuka had cut off his oxygen. He then quickly opens his eyes as he's still blushing a bit and says while being a bit nervous, "Is the thing you wanted to tell me that you have feelings for me, Asuka?"

Asuka plainly looks at Shinji while nodding. "And I was going to ask if you have feelings for me too."

Shinji's still nervous and looks away to the right for a moment. He then looks at her with a smile. "Yes, I do."

Asuka smiles at him while feeling a lot of joy and nods at him. "That's Great!" She can't sustain herself any longer and yells out while pulling her head back with her eyes closed. "Yes! I'm so relieved!"

Shinji chuckles as he watches her. He then thinks to himself, "So am I." He then says to her, "Hey, Asuka."

Asuka looks at him with a hint of curiosity showing as she's smiling. "What is it, Shinji?" Shinji then gets as close as possible to her and kisses her on the lips. Asuka's surprised for a moment by Shinji's sudden action, but then smiles as she kisses him back.

With Shinji and Asuka finally being able to express their true feelings to each other, the scene is concluded. It is now obvious that both Shinji and Asuka are in a relationship, and so are Touji and Hikari. But they aren't the only ones who get together. Over the course of a few weeks, Rei and Kensuke have started spending a lot of time together and have come to understand each other enough to agree that they have feelings for one another and are now together. Thanks to Rei's relationship with Kensuke, she got more use to expressing herself and has become more social with the others. This helped with her relationship with Asuka since the two of them really weren't on good terms with each other for a long time, but now are working on being friends. This is also thanks to how Asuka has improved as a person as she's now more open about some things, for example her experience with her mother. She was able to tell Shinji and he was there for her when she even started crying after she had told him. Shinji is also improving since Asuka's coaching him to be a little bit more aggressive, although Shinji's still timid for most of the time, but at least he looks happier.

When it comes to Touji and Hikari's relationship, the only thing that has been worked on is how Touji acts out some times. Hikari has been keeping him in check, which irritates Touji sometimes, but he deals with it. Misato and Kaji are happy that the children are able to experience something as normal as relationships before they have to fight against SEELE. A few more weeks pass by and the reconstruction of the city is almost complete. Also, Eva Unit 01 and Eva Unit 02 had been already repaired for some time while Eva Unit 00 and Eva Unit 03 are almost rebuilt from the parts that were salvaged and the parts from the Mass Production Evas. The other Evas that have been planned to be made from the rest of the Mass Production Evas' parts are almost completed. Hopefully they're completed before SEELE makes its move because if not, then there might be some trouble for NERV.

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

This won't be brief because I have a lot to explain and say. First off, my reasoning for Kensuke's plugsuit color is because I've looked through the internet and I normally see fan art that has him wear green, so I decided to stick with that. Hikari's plugsuit is based on me only seeing pictures of her wearing an orange plugsuit, so I'll keep it like that. Touji's plugsuit is obviously from pictures although I do see some that have the color dark grey on the top instead of light grey, so I had to make a judgment call. As you can tell, I abused the time-skip so I can pretty much cut to the chase because it would have taken a long time to get Rei and Kensuke together if I had written it out. I will try to make the next episode have action because I want to give you all action, but I'm still not sure if I should just yet. I hope you all enjoyed the love-fest and pray for the action to come soon.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	4. Episode 4

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

I'm going to keep this as short as possible because some times I don't have much to say. I'm pretty confident that there will be action, but it won't be action against SEELE. You guys will soon see what I mean by that. I will be taking another idea from Jason R. Emery, but the scene will not be the same, it's just the idea. I don't plan on taking anymore ideas from Jason and I will work on my own material, although of course I will still take some things from Anno. Like I said before, he's the creator and he's awesome. Enjoy the episode and know that I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Episode 4: Epic Simulation Training and SEELE's Preparations

Some more time had gone by and now it has been roughly two months since the day of the 3rd Impact and the year is 2016. *I'm making the assumption that it's about the beginning of the year, so it's like February because I think the 3rd Impact in EoE occurred while nearing the end of the year* The relationships between the children have been going well and with that, something interesting occurs. The children have been talking about something they wanted to do and this is out of the desire of each couple wanting to be closer. So they decided on confronting Misato and Kaji about their desire after they all finish eating as everyone is sitting at the table in the following order; On the left side of the table that's closest to the stove, which is the farthest point in the kitchen from the door to exit the house, it's Kaji who's sitting at the left corner. Misato's on his right, Asuka then follows, and Shinji is sitting at the second to last seat of that side. Remember, the table can sit ten people, which means there are ten chairs. On the other side of the table, Touji's at the right corner while sitting in front of Kaji. Hikari is on his left side, then follows Rei and finally Kensuke, who's sitting in front of Shinji.

Asuka looks at the others with determination and nods at them. They nod back at her with determination as well, although Shinji and Hikari are a little nervous by what Asuka's about to ask. After seeing their response, Asuka nods once again, turns to look at the two adults and says with a sweet, innocent tone, "Hey, Misato, Kaji..."

In response, both Kaji and Misato look at her with curiosity showing as Misato says, "Yes, Asuka?"

Asuka takes in a deep breath for a moment while closing her eyes and then looks at them with a hint of confidence. "Well, the others and I want to ask you two something important. It's something that means a lot to us."

Misato makes a concerned expression while she takes a look at each of the children all the way back to Asuka. "What is it?"

Asuka answers with a pleading smile towards both Kaji and Misato. "Well... We were thinking about maybe, we all could switch out rooms so that the couples will be in the same room together."

Misato's mildly surprised at first due to the sudden request and then turns her gaze to Kaji with a bit of curiosity being displayed. "What do you think?"

Kaji sighs as he closes his eyes and lowers his head. "I don't know, Misato." He then looks at Misato while lifting his head back up. "As adults, it would be irresponsible to allow teens of the opposite sex to be sleeping in the same room." He then looks at the children with some seriousness showing.

Touji gets off his chair and gestures his arms a little while saying with a pleading tone, "Come on! You can trust us! We promise we won't do anythin' perverted!"

Kensuke chuckles as he looks at Touji. "You know that you being who you are completely contradicts that promise, right?"

Touji glares at Kensuke out of the corner of his eyes with annoyance being noted. "Shut it!"

Misato looks at all of them with sympathy. "I'm sorry, guys. Kaji's right."

After hearing what Misato said, all the children groan in disappointment while Shinji's quite sad as his head is lowered since he would like to be in the same room with Asuka. He then realizes something, which causes his eyes to widen. Afterwards, he looks up at Misato and Kaji with a light smile. "But Misato. Don't you think it will benefit you and Kaji if you let us be in the room with the one we want?" Everyone then looks at Shinji while being surprised by what he just said.

Misato's surprised at first due to what Shinji just said. She's then filled with curiosity while leaning towards him. "How would it benefit us?"

Shinji maintains his smile while leaning towards Misato and whispers, "If each couple has a room together, wouldn't that mean Rei's no longer in your room and Kaji's no longer in mine?" After saying that, he chuckles with his eyes closed.

Misato's confused for a moment because she doesn't quite get what Shinji's implying. She then suddenly blushes after realizing what Shinji means and quickly pulls away from Shinji to look at Kaji with excitement as she gets really close to Kaji. "Let them do it!"

Kaji's surprised by what Misato said due to misinterpreting what she said as he pulls back a bit. "What?!"

Seeing Kaji's reaction confused Misato a little. She then blushes a little again when she realizes what she said and yells with annoyance brimming, "I didn't mean literally! I meant, let the couples stay in the same room!"

Kaji smiles nervously while closing his eyes and lifts his hands in front of Misato. "I knew that!" After saying that, he opens his eyes and scratches his head nervously with his right hand. He then puts his hands down with concern taking over and leans a little bit towards Misato. "But what made you change your mind about letting the couples sleep in the same room?"

Misato stares at him intently with a joyful smile. "You won't have to be in Shinji's room anymore." She then giggles while hinting something inappropriate.

At first Kaji has a confused expression due to lack of understanding still being noted. His eyes then widen when he realizes what she means and smiles at her. "Oh! Now I know what you mean!" After saying that, he turns to the children while still smiling. "Alright, kids. We'll trust you, but don't make us regret it, okay?" In response, the children nod in agreement while being very happy.

Asuka looks at Shinji with a smile and whispers to him, "You did it, Shinji!" She then gives him a quick kiss on the lips.

Shinji smiles as he kisses her back. He then pulls back to look at her. "I just really wanted us to be closer."

Asuka nods at Shinji with joy rising within her person. "Me too."

With the achievement of convincing Misato and Kaji, everyone goes to the rooms they have decided on having. Misato and Kaji get Misato's room, Shinji and Asuka get Shinji's room, Rei and Kensuke get the room that was abandoned by Asuka and Hikari, and Touji and Hikari get Touji's room. Everyone is content with their new living arrangements as the day goes on until it ends. The next day has been scheduled to be quite different for the pilots. They will be training with guns for self-defense purposes. This is due to there being the possibility that NERV can be attacked by people again. After that, they will go through their first team Eva simulation. This will be practice to see how well they work together and to see how they fare when fighting simulations of enemy Evas.

As they go through the gun training, it's very obvious that none of them have real experience with guns. The only one who has a lot of knowledge of guns is Kensuke since he's a military fanatic, but that doesn't mean he has an easier time learning how to use real guns. In Hikari's case, she hates guns and doesn't like the thought of using them. Luckily, Touji helps her get over her hatred a bit and this allows her to complete the exercises that have been set. Soon after the children finish their gun training, they get ready for the simulation training. Although Kensuke and Hikari's Eva aren't completed, they can still undergo the simulation due to it being projected through the children's individual entry plugs. This means it would be like a video game and whatever they do in the entry plug will occur in the simulation. The children must be careful though due to some dangerous risk that comes with simulation training.

After they get ready, the children go to the simulation room and are now in their individual entry plugs while waiting for the simulation to begin. *Side Note: Unit 00, 01 and 03 look the same as before while Unit 02's appearance has been modified. In the case of Kensuke's Eva, it has been defined to be Eva Unit 04 because it was based on the original Unit 04's design. The color is even the same, which is silver. Asuka's Unit 02 now looks like the Unit 02 from the Rebuild of Evangelion instead of the original Unit 02 from the series due to all of the damage it took during the fight against the Mass Production caused NERV to make some changes to its appearance when being rebuilt.

Now, the Eva Hikari will pilot has been made to look exactly like Rei's Eva, but instead of blue, it's the original color Unit 00 use to be, which is orange. Her Eva has been dubbed the title of 'Extra Eva' instead of having a number due to the Eva being considered as a copy of Unit 00. If needed, parts will be taken from this Eva to help repair Unit 00 if it goes through severe damage like it normally does. Until then, Hikari will pilot it to help the other children fight*

Shinji's currently waiting patiently with his eyes closed as his head is lowered and thinks, "I'm a bit worried about this simulation training. Misato had said earlier that we need to be careful because our sync ratio will cause us to feel the pain that the Eva feels. This could actually be as dangerous as a real fight with an enemy." He then gives out a depressing sigh and slowly opens his eyes after doing that.

In Asuka's case, she's looking at the small screen that's to her left as it shows Shinji. Due to seeing his expression, she becomes very concerned as she thinks, "I know it must be hard for him. This simulation  
will put all of us at risk of getting hurt. Shinji still remembers the feeling of not being able to do anything to help me." She then looks towards the main screen and thinks, "He'll probably have a hard time at first, but I'll be sure to help him in any way I can." Determination then fills Asuka's expression as she nods to herself.

In the meantime, Hikari's hands are shaking from nervousness while her eyes are glued to them. She then mumbles to herself, "Calm down... Just calm down... I need to be calm. I don't want to hold the others back."

Touji's image hurriedly appears on a small screen that's on Hikari's right as he looks at her with concern. "Hey, Hikari? Are ya alright?"

After Touji says that, Hikari's startled due to hearing his voice suddenly come from nowhere. She then turns her head to look at him and makes a shameful smile after seeing him while nodding. In response, Touji gives her a reassuring smile while being a bit hyped up. "Don't ya worry! Remember, I would do everythin' I can to protect ya! So cheer up a bit! I won't break my promise, so just believe in me!" He says that last part while lifting his right hand up to give Hikari a thumbs up and winks at her with his left eye as he continues to smile.

Hikari blushes slightly while happily smiling at Touji. She then nods at him and says with a bit of confidence, "Okay. I believe in you, Suzuhara."

Touji keeps smiling until Hikari's image disappears. His smile then slowly disappears while closing his eyes and sighs. Afterwards, he says to himself while opening his eyes with sadness being seen in them, "I just hope... I don't break that promise. I don't want anythin' bad to happen to her."

At the same time, Kensuke's extremely hyper since he had been eagerly waiting for the opportunity to pilot. Even though he knows it's only a simulation, that doesn't stop his excitement while thinking, "This is so freaking awesome! I can't wait to start!"

After Kensuke finishes that thought, Rei's image appears on a small screen that's on Kensuke's right as there's a light smile being displayed on her person. "You seem excited, Kensuke."

Kensuke looks at her with a delighted smile. "Of course I am! I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. Even though it's just a simulation, I'm still really psyched!"

Rei continues to smile at him with a good amount of content showing. "That's good. To be positive is a great aspect." She then opens her eyes to look at him with some worry rising. "Just be careful."

Kensuke nods at her with determination while confidently saying, "You don't have to worry. I will."

Misato's voice unexpectedly comes through the intercom and says with a serious tone, "Alright, guys. Be prepared because the simulation is about to start. Remember, the whole point of this is to work together as much as possible. If you see someone having trouble, try to help them out." She pauses for a moment and then says firmly, "Now here's the situation, so listen up closely."

The children nod while paying close attention to what Misato is about to say. Misato then says with the same tone. "There will be a grand total of twelve Evas. They look exactly like the Eva Series that Asuka had to fight. Right now, you guys will be at a 2 to 1 disadvantage and the enemy Evas will be set to the highest possible difficulty. This is to see how all of you fair against strong opponents while being outnumbered."

Asuka gives out a short arrogant laugh while leaning forward. "This will be nothing! I fought against nine of those bastards and I would have beaten them if they never had cheated!"

Misato responds over the intercom. "Well, Asuka. This time don't stop fighting until the enemy Evas are annihilated. So there's no possible way they can cheat." She then giggles a little in a teasing way.

Asuka gets a little annoyed for a moment, but gets over it while rolling her eyes. "Whatever."

Misato smiles as she's revealed to be in Central Dogma with Maya, Hyuga, Aoba, Ritsuko and Kaji. She's standing next to Kaji while looking at a giant main screen that will be showing the simulation's landscape with her arms crossed. "This will be interesting."

Kaji looks at her out of the corner of his right eye with a smile and nods. "Yeah. This will be quite exciting. We'll actually see how well they'll do in the simulation."

Misato turns her head to look at him and nods with a hint of concern. "True. I just hope that nothing bad happens." Her concern then rises as she turns her head to look at the main screen. "This simulation is actually too dangerous for it to be just training. One wrong move and any one of the pilots can be severely injured. I hope they'll be alright."

Kaji turns his attention to the main screen as well with seriousness showing. "Me too."

With Kaji's words being the last thing said in Central Dogma, the simulation starts as the pilots see the landscape they will be fighting in. The landscape is rocky and vast while also having multiple mountains. For some odd reason though, the pilots find themselves spread out in different areas. This confuses them since this is supposed to be a team based training exercise.

Shinji gets a bit worried while leaning forward as he's looking around in panic. "What the...?! Where is everyone?!"

Misato makes a concerned expression while turning her head to the left to look at Maya and says with a firm tone, "Why are they separated? They're supposed to work as a team. How can they do that when they aren't anywhere near each other?!"

Ritsuko suddenly stands on Maya's left while looking at Misato with her hands in her coat pockets and interrupts before Maya has a chance to say anything with a stern tone, "It was determined that we need to consider the possibilities of the pilots being separated. We need to see how they handle themselves with no one else around." Ritsuko then turns her attention towards the main screen while saying, "Afterwards, we'll have them work on teamwork if they manage to find each other."

Misato thinks to herself while looking at Ritsuko with confusion, "But it would be better if they work together and not go it alone." She pauses for a moment as she looks up at the main screen with worry and thinks, "I understand there are moments that a pilot can be fighting by themself, but I would prefer to never have that be a consideration for the sake of the children."

With that thought, the focus changes to focus on the children as each one goes through different qualms with what's happening in the simulation.

Hikari's currently tense while looking around in a frantic manner. "Why are we separated?! This isn't what Misato said was going to happen!" She then tries to calm herself down while looking at her hands that are still on the controls with concern. "Where are you, Suzuhara...?"

Meanwhile, Rei calmly looks around while having her Eva proceeding with caution and says softly to herself, "I have to locate where the others are. The sooner we are together, the sooner we'll be able to fight as a team." She then notices out of the corner of her left eye that something has been thrown at her.

Rei promptly responds by moving her Eva to dodge it, and after dodging it, she turns her gaze to the object that had been thrown at her. It's then revealed to be a miniature Lance of Longinus and this causes Rei to look at the direction that the miniature lance came from. Afterwards, seriousness rises on her face when she sees an enemy Eva that's not too far away from her. *Side Note: I will be numbering the enemy Evas by appearance. So the first Eva is titled Eva 01, the second one that appears will be Eva 02 and so on.*

Enemy Eva 01 smiles in an evil way at Unit 00 while spreading out its wings as it's about to attack. Rei reacts to the enemy's action by making Unit 00 pull out its Progressive Knife with its right hand while it takes a defensive pose. That way, she'll be ready when the enemy Eva attacks as says to herself, "I have to remember that I will feel pain if it hurts Unit 00. So as much as possible, I must avoid any damage." She then tightens her grip on the controls while waiting for Enemy Eva 01 to make a move.

Rei didn't have to wait long though because the enemy suddenly launches itself at Unit 00 while extending out its arms in the attempt to grab Unit 00. Rei quickly responds by expanding Unit 00's A.T. Field, but the enemy breaks through it and collides into her Eva. This causes her to feel a bit of a shock at first, but regains her composure and retaliated with the Prog Knife by thrusting it towards the enemy.

The knife is successful in going through the enemy's A.T. Field due to it being neutralized by Unit 00's A.T. Field and stabs the enemy's left rib region. As a result, Enemy Eva 01 screeches while taking a step back. Rei sees her opportunity and then pulls out another Prog Knife with Unit 00's left hand. Unit 00 then stabs the enemy's right cheek and with a lot of force, makes the enemy lose its balance.

Enemy Eva 01 is about to fall over, but suddenly stops itself from falling and tries to reach out towards Unit 00 in desperation. In response, Unit 00 pulls out both knives from the enemy's body and dodges the attack by taking a step back. It then thrust both knives into the enemy's chest, which causes the chest to crack. As a result, Enemy Eva 01 screeches even louder from the pain while extending out its arms out towards opposite sides.

After that, Rei says to herself with urgency showing on her face, "I have to completely destroy it!" She then pulls out the knives and thrust them in again with as much force as possible. This causes the knives to completely go through the enemy's body and exit out of the enemy's back. Enemy Eva 01 then gives out one last horrific screech and suddenly stops as a light starts to shine from where Unit 00 had pierced through. This causes Rei to become concerned while leaning a bit forward. "What's that light?"

Misato's voice suddenly comes from the intercom while sounding a bit strained. "It's going to blow up!"

Rei's surprised by Misato's sudden outburst while looking upward. She then closes her eyes with her head lowered and braces herself. As soon as she does that, the enemy blows up and creates a giant explosion. After a little time passes, the explosion dies down and the smoke that was caused by the explosion disappears. It's then revealed that Unit 00 is alright while sustaining some small damage. Rei continues to be in the entry plug as she breathes heavily with her head down. "That hurt quite a bit. If it wasn't for my A.T. Field, it would have been a lot worse."

With that said, the scene quickly changes and it's the worse case scenario for Hikari. Right now, she's surrounded by three enemy Evas as it seems that she has to face them all by herself.

Hikari looks at each of the enemy Evas with stress being noted. "Oh my God! What do I do?!" She then closes her eyes while lowering her head and yells out, "Please, Suzuhara! Help me!"

Misato has a panicked expression while looking at the screen that now displays Hikari's current situation. She then turns to Maya with concern. "Is there any of the other pilots near by?!"

After hearing Misato's question, Maya looks at her with sadness in her eyes and slowly shakes her head in disappointment due to there not being any other pilots near by. This causes Misato to grit her teeth with irritation as she quickly looks up at the main screen. She then yells out in a commanding tone through her microphone that she's wearing on her collar, "To all other pilots! Hikari's in trouble! If you can, go to her aid as soon as possible!"

Asuka hears Misato's command while being quite concern about her friend's safety. She then analyzes the area with seriousness and yells, "I'll go help her out!" She then thinks while being a bit irritated, "I can't believe how they singled her out so quickly! She has the lowest sync ratio and she's still not used to the thought of fighting!" Asuka's about to go look for Hikari, but she's suddenly interrupted when an enemy Eva appears right in front of her. This irritates her even more as she glares at it and says loudly, "Great! Now I have one of those bastards in my way!" Afterwards, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath to calm down. She then opens them to glare at the enemy with intensity. "I'm going to take you down quick and then help Hikari out! So don't expect this fight to be long!"

As Asuka faces against an enemy Eva, Hikari's currently trying to get away from the enemy Evas by maneuvering her Eva around. This is so that she can find an escape route, but unfortunately, she's unable to lose them due to their determination. She starts to panic as a result while frantically looking around and continues to try to get away from them. "Darn it! I need to get away, but they won't let me!

Enemy Eva 03 is chasing after the Extra Eva from behind while having an evil smile as it's pointing its miniature lance at it. Hikari turns her Eva to look at Enemy Eva 03 while having it stop. She then makes a terrified expression while trying to back up her Eva and luckily dodges the extended strike of the enemy. She continues to pull her Eva back until she feels like she's at a safe distance. After that, she makes it stop while trying to regain her composure as she take deep breaths. "That was scary. I came really close to getting hit." Suddenly, a shadow covers her Eva and this causes her to quickly look up while being quite scared.

Enemy Eva 04's right above the Extra Eva and descends while pointing its miniature lance downward at Hikari's Eva. Hikari's stunned by the sudden appearance of the enemy and closes her eyes while lowering her head as she braces herself. Enemy Eva 04's lance is about to strike Hikari's Eva, but it's blocked by a Prog Knife being held by a giant, black mechanical hand. Hikari hears the collision of the two weapons and quickly opens her eyes while looking up and sees that it's Eva Unit 03 that had just saved her from the enemy's attack. She then smiles as she yells out happily, "Suzuhara!"

Touji has his Eva push away the enemy as he lands his Eva on its feet. He then turns his head to the left to look at Hikari's image on the side screen with a confident smile. "I promised that I would protect ya!"

Hikari smiles at him while nodding. "Yes, you did."

Misato sighs out of relief while she closes her eyes with her head lowered. "Thank goodness." After saying that, a sudden explosion occurs from the simulation. This causes Misato to open her eyes and looks up at the main screen. The screen had changed to focus on the area that the explosion occurred with concerned brimming. "What was that?!"

Hyuga turns his chair slightly towards the left to look at her with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. It was just Asuka defeating one of the enemy Evas."

Misato looks at him with surprise taking over and yells out in disbelief, "Really?!"

Hyuga nods at her while turning back around to look at his screen that's installed in front of him. "I've been keeping an eye on her since the main screen was on Extra Eva and Unit 03." He then quickly types something and looks at the main screen when he finished. "Check it out. Here's a better angle since the explosion is in the way."

Misato looks up at the main screen that displays Eva Unit 02 as it's standing proudly in a victory pose after defeating Enemy Eva 02. This causes Misato to smile while thinking to herself, "Same old Asuka." After saying that, Misato gives out a short laugh and then says in a commanding tone, "Don't just stand there, Asuka! Go help the others! Touji and Hikari are located due east from your current location!"

Asuka nods with confidence increasing. "I'm on it!" Afterwards, she turns her Eva towards east and has it go in that direction while yelling out, "Hold on, Hikari and Touji! The Great Asuka is on her way!" She then smiles as she continues on her way to Touji and Hikari's location.

Misato smiles for a moment with content due to hearing Asuka's declaration. She then hears Hikari screaming through the intercom and quickly turns her attention back towards Hikari and Touji with concern. "What's going on?!" Her question is then answered when the main screen suddenly displays Unit 03 flying in the air and its back crashes into a mountain.

Touji makes a pain filled expression while cringing a bit. As he does this, he maintains his hold on the controls while he's looking downward. He then looks up while irritation is being displayed. "Those bastards fight dirty! They ain't supposed to be working together! That's what we're supposed to do!"

Hikari looks at Unit 03 while being very worried and yells out, "Suzuhara! Are you alright?!"

Touji tries to regain some of his composure while pushing his Eva off the mountain so it can stand. "Yeah, I'm fine." He's then surprised by something he sees and yells out, "Hikari! Behind you!" Due to Touji's cry, Hikari turns her head to look behind her and sees that two enemy Evas are running towards her. This causes her to gasp while being startled and tries to back away, but she isn't quick enough. Both Enemy Eva 03 and 04 are now seconds away from striking the Extra Eva with their lances at the same time.

All Hikari can do is tense up as the duo attack almost comes into contact with her Eva while she's terrified. Touji then passionately yells as his Eva gets in front of both attacks. After doing that, his Eva's pierced in the right side of the stomach and in the joint of the left shoulder. This causes Touji to scream out in pain while grasping his body with both hands. At the same time, the LCL in the entry plug turns a bit reddish while producing multiple streams of bubbles throughout the entire entry plug. This is to display the effectiveness of the enemy attack through the synchronization between Touji and his Eva.

Hearing Touji's scream horrifies Hikari as she yells out, "Suzuhara!" Both Evas then smile in an evil way as they lift Unit 03 off the ground with their lance and throw it into the air above them. The momentum throws Unit 03 behind the enemy Evas, and as it's in the air, Touji passes out from the intense pain he felt from the synchronization. After Touji passed out, Unit 03 heads towards the ground as it's moments away from crashing into it. This horrifies Hikari even more as she sees Unit 03 about to hit the ground. She then sees that Unit 03 is caught at the last second by Unit 04. As a result, Hikari makes a surprised expression and yells out, "Aida!"

Kensuke gives Unit 03 a serious look while it's being held in his Eva's arms. After a few seconds, his Eva carries Unit 03 towards a mountain and lies it against the mountain. Unit 04 then turns to face the two enemy Evas while Kensuke's really pissed that they hurt his friend. He then says with a demanding tone, "Colonel Katsuragi! Give me some weapons to work with!"

Misato's surprised at first due to the way Kensuke's acting. She then quickly smiles as she looks towards Aoba and says, "Give him what he wants!" Aoba firmly nods at Misato in response to her order. He then turns to his screen and starts typing as Kensuke waits patiently while staring the enemy down. Suddenly, two giant buildings come out from the ground as part of the simulation and open up to reveal two N2 Missile Launchers, which are round in shape while being the color brown. They actually look very similar to an RPG missile launcher.

Kensuke smiles as he sees the missile launchers and quickly makes Unit 04 grab onto them. Unit 04 now holds one in each hand while having the ends of the launcher tucked beneath the Eva's arms to maintain a firm grip on them as they're pointed towards the enemy. Kensuke then says with confidence brimming from his face. "Let's see if you like this."

Afterwards, Kensuke carefully takes aim and fires both N2 Missile Launchers at the enemy Evas. Hikari's stunned at first, but when she sees the missiles heading towards the enemy Evas, she quickly makes her Eva retreat due to not wanting to get caught by the possible explosion that will be made. In response, Enemy Eva 03 and 04 spread out their wings as they're about to fly away in opposite directions. This is so they don't get hit by the missiles, but suddenly their paths are blocked by both Unit 00 and Unit 02 appearing out of nowhere.

Asuka smiles while staring down Enemy Eva 03, which is the one that she's blocking, with her Eva's arms crossed as she laughs proudly. "Where the hell do you think you're going?!"

Rei stares down at Enemy Eva 04 with coldness in her eyes. "I'll answer that... Nowhere." She then smiles lightly with her eyes closed.

Enemy Eva 03 and 04 both back step a bit, and then at the same time, they look towards the N2 Missiles that are just about to make contact with them. The missiles then do make contact and causes a giant explosion that annihilates both of them. Asuka and Rei feel a huge shock-wave from the explosion due to both being pretty close to the enemies. They tightly hold onto their controls while their eyes are closed until the explosion dies down. They then open their eyes and see that the two enemy Evas had been defeated. At that exact moment, everyone in Central Dogma cheer at the children's accomplishment.

Kensuke also sees that the two enemy Evas had been defeated and yells out from joy while throwing a punch in front of him with his right hand, "Alright! My first victory!" He then chuckles to himself while placing his hand back on the controls.

Asuka looks towards Unit 04 with a bit of irritation and mumbles, "Don't be so full of it. If it wasn't for me and Wonder-girl, those bastards would have dodged the missiles easily."

In the meantime, Hikari's amazed while watching the others. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that Enemy Eva 05 is right behind her as it points its lance at her Eva's back. It then thrusts the lance in the attempt of piercing the back. Suddenly, Unit 03 catches the lance with its left hand as Touji's very pissed while the entry plug's LCL color has reverted back to normal.

Hikari hears the sound that's made from the lance being caught and turns her head towards the left, which is where Unit 03 is standing. She then makes a surprised expression while gasping a little when she sees Unit 03 operating. Kensuke's also surprised as he looks at where he had put Unit 03 and then looks back at where Unit 03's currently located. "I thought Touji was knocked out!"

Touji yells out while still being pissed off, "Ya bastard! Stop tryin' to hurt my girl!" Then, with a lot of force, Touji makes Unit 03 push the lance backwards, and with the lance's bottom part, pierces the ribs of the enemy Eva. As a result, Enemy Eva 05 roars out in pain and then grabs onto the lance with its other hand as it tries to pull it out with both hands.

Then, with determination taking over, Touji pulls out Unit 03's Prog Knife with the other hand from its left pylon, and with as much force as possible, he stabs the left side of the enemy Eva's neck. As a result, Enemy Eva 05 roars out in pain again and foolishly removes its left hand from holding the lance so it can reach for Unit 03's right hand. Touji sees his opportunity, and with all the strength he can muster, he completely shoves the lance into the ribs of the enemy. This results in the lance going completely through the enemy's body in a diagonal angle while piercing the enemy Eva's core unit.

Misato looks towards Maya with concern. "Did he beat it?! It didn't explode like the others!"

Maya gazes at Misato while making a reassuring smile. "He indeed did. Not all of them will blow up when their core unit is destroyed, so don't worry."

Misato sighs out of relief while closing her eyes. She then looks up at the giant screen again while smiling. "That's good."

Hyuga's shocked by what he's seeing on his screen and then looks at Misato by turning his head to the left while having a stressed out expression. "Colonel Katsuragi! You won't believe this!" In response, both Misato and Kaji look at him with concern. Hyuga then yells out with a distraught tone while still looking at Misato, "Unit 01 has gone Berserk!"

Misato's in shock after hearing what Hyuga said while gasping a little. She then looks at the main screen that has just changed to show Unit 01 and yells out with a desperate tone, "Shinji!" It's then revealed that Shinji's consumed with rage as his Eva is on top of an enemy Eva while it's ripping the enemy apart. As Unit 01 continues to do this, it's shown around Shinji's Eva that there are multiple remains of other enemy Evas that are lying on the ground while blood is skewered everywhere. Unit 01 had defeated three Evas and had also ripped them to shreds. Shinji's now focused on his fourth opponent and the enemy has been screeching out in pain while being torn apart.

Kaji yells out to Shinji while being very concerned, "Calm down, Shinji!" He then looks at Misato while maintaining his concern. "Why is he acting like this?!"

Ritsuko calmly responds for Misato while looking at Kaji. "It must have something to do with what happened to Asuka."

Misato looks at Ritsuko with a surprised expression and thinks, "That's right! I had told Shinji to go help Asuka when she fought against the Eva Series! Sadly, he wasn't able to help her in time and had to see Unit 02 in that horrific state..." While thinking that last part, Misato's filled with sadness, sighs with her eyes focused on the floor and then says softly to herself, "He must be angry with himself for not helping her back then. Seeing the simulations that are purposely made to look like those exact Evas must had pushed him over the edge."

Kaji sees the sadness on Misato's face and this causes him to become sad as well. He then turns to look at Maya and the others while calmly saying with seriousness being displayed, "Terminate the simulation."

Aoba turns his chair a little to the left to look at Kaji. As he does that, he maintains his right hand on the keys' of his screen while confusion can be noted on his person. "Terminate?! But the simulation is supposed to continue until all enemy Evas had been defeated!"

Kaji calmly looks at Aoba. "That may be true, but the main purpose of the simulation was to display teamwork, which we did witness. That should be good enough." Aoba makes a concerned expression as he looks towards Maya and Hyuga. They both look back at him and shrug while not being sure about what to do. They then look towards their individual screens and start to type due to them deciding just to go with Kaji's order.

Misato looks up at the main screen again and says into her microphone with a sad tone, "Shinji... No one can blame you for being upset, but please... Calm down..." Unfortunately for Misato, Shinji continues tearing the enemy Eva apart without taking notice of what Misato said. Even though the enemy has already stopped functioning while Shinji's still enraged. This worries Misato as she yells out, "Shinji! You can stop now! We're stopping the simulation!"

Shinji keeps ignoring Misato as he keeps tearing the enemy apart while there's almost nothing left. Suddenly, the simulation disappears and Shinji's entry plug turns off. This causes Shinji to snap out of it while being very surprised as he looks around in the entry plug, which is now dark. "What the...?! What happened?!"

Asuka's voice comes through the intercom as she says with a sad, caring tone, "The simulation is over Shinji. You don't have to be angry anymore."

Shinji continues to be surprised as he looks up at the ceiling. "Really? When did it end?" He then looks down at the floor of the entry plug with concern brimming. "Now that I think about it, I don't even remember what I was even doing."

Asuka makes a sad expression as she's looking towards the right of her entry plug and mumbles, "You don't have to worry about it. It's best that you don't remember right now."

The scene then changes and the focus have now gone to Chairmen Keel and four members of SEELE. They are sitting at a table that has been seen a few times in the NGE series, but now it is in a different room due to them having to relocate themselves. *Side Note: I'll be calling the four members that sit with Keel, SEELE # 2 to SEELE # 5 because it seems like they are the most important members next to Keel*

Keel looks at SEELE # 4 with a moderately concerned expression. "Are the primary preparations ready?"

SEELE # 4 nods at Keel while being quite serious. "Yes. Evas 01 through 08 have been completed. Our tech team is currently working on Evas 09 through 15 as we speak."

Keel smiles as he looks at all of them. "That's good. We have made sure that they'll give NERV a different challenge with each of them, correct?"

SEELE # 5 responds with a confident tone while looking at Keel. "Indeed, the majority do. Shall we have the ones that are completed launch an attack on NERV?"

Keel looks at SEELE # 5 with no real emotion. "That's not necessary." He then looks at SEELE # 2. "Isn't that right?"

SEELE # 2 firmly nods at him with his arms crossed. "Indeed." He then looks at the other members. "I made the decision to give out the order to send the first three while being installed with the Dummy Plug System and with the S2 Engines that have just been completed."

SEELE # 4 arrogantly smiles while looking at SEELE # 2. "Then we should have the advantage. They only have Unit 01 with an S2 Engine. Our Evas will pick them apart, one by one."

Keel gives all four of them a serious look. "Let's not assume that. Even though we do have the advantage of the S2 engines, they have pilots with a lot of potential."

SEELE # 3 nods in agreement while looking at the other members. "Keel is right. Plus, my resource has told me that they have more pilots now. Also, they used the Mass Production Evas' remains to remake Unit 03 while making copies of Unit 00 and the original Unit 04."

SEELE # 2 looks at Keel while maintaining his seriousness from earlier. "Speaking of which, when will we be using our pilots?"

Keel calmly looks back at SEELE # 2. "We will use them when our ace is ready." After hearing what Keel said, all members nod at him in agreement.

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Things are starting to get interesting. It took me a while to finish this episode, but at least I'm finally done. The next episode will be the start of the war between NERV and SEELE. I hope that you all enjoyed this episode. I was happy when I decided to make this episode with action, even though it's only training action. Now, the real battle will start in the next one, so really look forward to it. I will like to thank all of those who have reviewed and viewed my story. It really means a lot.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	5. Episode 5

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

It's time to get back into business. I'm going to use a good amount of my creativity in this episode because it will have action. I was true to my word about bringing in the action on the fifth episode, and I even gave you a pretty awesome fourth episode if you ask me. *Laughs* Now once again, I will do my best to entertain you and I really hope you like this episode.

Episode 5: The First Impending Strike. Fight Valiantly, Children of NERV

A few days go by and the whole simulation experience has been put behind the pilots. Unfortunately, Shinji continues to be troubled by how he acted during the simulation training. He hasn't been himself since the simulation and he's actually being distant from the others. It's now early in the morning and Asuka is slowly waking up while lying on the bed with Shinji. *Side Note: All the rooms look the same except for a few things. In Shinji and Asuka's case, their room has a dresser that's on the left side of the bed, which is on the same side that Asuka sleeps on. It has her doll that used to belong to her mother on it while being a bit damaged due to the 3rd Impact. The dresser has all of Asuka's clothing in it while Shinji's clothes are in the closet that's located next to his side of the bed. There are also some luggage that are spread across the room that have clothes and other stuff in them, which they all belong to Asuka since she usually has a lot of stuff*

Asuka slowly opens her eyes as it's revealed that she isn't wearing her brain-wave transmitters like she normally does. This is obviously because she never wears them while sleeping nor in the apartment when she has no expectation of going out. Asuka gives a quick glance around her surroundings while facing away from Shinji as she slowly sits up. After gathering some composure, she turns her head to the right to look at Shinji with no real emotion. She sees that he's still sleeping with his SDAT on while facing away from her. He would have normally been close to Asuka when sleeping, but due to him being distant, he's been facing away from her lately.

After seeing Shinji, Asuka thinks to herself with sadness rising, "I'm worried about him. I've tried talking to him so I can help him get back to being his old self, but he doesn't say a thing back. I really hate that he's been doing that." With the completion of that thought, Shinji suddenly turns his body to lie on his back with his left arm on his stomach. He also has his right arm above his head while he continues to sleep. Sadness can still be seen on Asuka's person as she turns her body to face Shinji. She then leans forward while lightly placing her hands on Shinji's chest. At the same time, she closes her eyes and gently kisses him on the lips.

Shinji feels the warmth of Asuka's lips and causes him to slowly open his eyes while instinctively clicking pause on his SDAT with his left hand. At first his vision of Asuka is blurry from just waking up, and then everything comes into focus as he sees that Asuka's kissing him. This results in him being quite surprised while thinking, "Asuka...?!" He then suddenly smiles after taking into consideration how good it feels to be kissed by Asuka and places his right hand on her left cheek while pressing his lips against her's to kiss her back.

Asuka opens her eyes to look at Shinji while being surprised by his hand being placed on her cheek. She then smiles and pulls away from him to stop the kiss while the left side of her hair covers her face. After a couple of seconds, she moves her hair out of her face with her right and says with a sweet tone, "Enjoyed that?" In response, Shinji smiles and nods while looking directly into Asuka's beautiful blue eyes with a hint of content. This causes Asuka to keep smiling as she tilts her head slightly to the left. "Well if you want more of that then you have to start acting like the old stupid Shinji I fell in love with."

Shinji turns a little bit red while feeling a bit embarrassed. After that, he hesitantly nods at her while saying with a faint voice, "Alright." He then pauses for a moment while looking away with a somber expression. "Sorry for making you worry."

Asuka gets a little irritated due to Shinji apologizing, but quickly gets over it by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Afterwards, she opens her eyes to look at him with a sincere smile. "It's alright. Just be happy that you're so fortunate to have me worry about you."

Shinji looks at Asuka with surprise due to what she just said while turning red again and then smiles at her while shyly nodding. "Of course."

Thanks to Asuka, Shinji starts to be social with the others again, which is a huge relief for everyone. Today was supposed to be a day to relax for the children and not have to worry about synchronization test or self-defense training. Unfortunately, their day to relax was interrupted when the clock struck 3:50 PM and Tokyo-03's newly installed emergency system notifies everyone to head to a shelter. Everyone in the city is surprised to hear the alarm because they know what it means due to how familiar they are with it. They all head to a shelter as the city is being submerged underground like it use to, even though it still isn't complete. Although the children had the day off, Misato didn't and she's currently at Central Dogma with the other members of NERV while viewing the large main screen that's displayed in the room. They then see a giant, shadowy figure at the outskirts of the city as it's slowly heading towards Tokyo-03.

Misato watches the screen with concern while her arms are crossed. "So the time has come." She then sighs and lowers her head with her eyes closed.

Hyuga looks at Misato from his post with his body facing towards his screen with sadness showing on his person. "We all knew that this was going to eventually happen, Colonel."

Misato nods while opening her eyes and looks up at the screen again with determination. "You're right! Now let's get down to business!" In response, everyone in Central Dogma nod in agreement while all being very determined.

Ritsuko looks at Misato for a moment while smiling. She then turns her attention towards Gendo and Fuyutsuki, who are at Gendo's usual spot, As she does that, seriousness takes over while she thinks, "I really do hope that you don't have anything secretly planned like last time." She then turns her attention to look at Misato again and says to her with a moderately concerned tone, "Where's Kaji?"

Misato looks at Ritsuko while being a bit surprised that Ritsuko didn't know where Kaji's at. She then smiles at her while calmly stating, "Commander Ikari put him in charge of locating where SEELE's hiding. That way, when we find them, we can bring the fight to them instead of waiting for every one of their cheap sneak attacks." After saying that, Misato turns her attention back to the main screen and says with a commanding tone, "Are the pilots here yet?!"

Aoba responds with distress showing while looking at his computer screen, "They're on their way! They were just picked up by NERV personnel and are headed over here as we speak!"

Misato smiles as she nods to herself while still looking at the main screen. "Good. As soon as they're ready and in their Evas, our counterattack will commence." She then gives Maya a serious look and says in a commanding tone again, "All the Evas are ready, right?!"

Maya nods while focusing on her screen that currently displays the status of the Evas. "Yes! All of them are operational!"

Aoba yells out while still looking at his screen, "The pilots have arrived and they're getting ready!"

Misato glances at Aoba while smiling with content. She then looks at the main screen and thinks to herself while being a bit excited, "We're almost ready! So let's see what SEELE has up their sleeves!"

Hyuga's looking at his screen and thinks to himself while having a concerned expression, "From what we can see and from what the MAGI have confirmed, there's only one enemy. But why would SEELE send us one when they should obviously know that it will be outnumbered? Although they may not know how many Evas we have, but they can't possibly think one Eva will be enough." He then looks up at the main screen, which now displays a good look of the enemy Eva. Afterwards, Hyuga mumbles to himself while still being concerned , "Let's hope that there isn't more to this."

Dummy Eva 01 has just enter the city as it's revealed to be the color dark green with its arms being light blue. Its physical appearance is like the children's Evas with the exception of its head being different. The head's shaping is similar to Mari's Unit 05 from the Rebuild Movie with the same facial features. Dummy Eva 01 has a very large dark green missile launcher strapped to its back. It's about the same length as the Eva while the width is thin enough that the Eva can hold it with one arm. In its left hand, it carries multiple missiles in a very large bandolier. As Dummy Eva 01 continues to progress through the city, NERV launches an attack to keep it at bay until the pilots are ready. Unfortunately, their attempts are barely doing anything due to the Eva's A.T. Field. *Side Note: I will be referring all of SEELE's Evas as Dummy Evas until further notice*

Aoba's looking up at the main screen with disappointment. "Damn it! I was hoping that it would at least do something!"

Hyuga watches the main screen as well while having a stressful expression. He then calmly responds to Aoba's complaint. "Well that just proves that SEELE didn't slack off when making their Eva."

Misato keeps looking at the main screen as the enemy Eva continues its way through the city. She then says with a commanding tone, "We need to keep attacking until the children are ready to be launched! No matter what, don't back down!" Central Dogma's personnel then obediently nod in agreement and continue to do what they can to stall for the pilots.

As a result, Dummy Eva 01 continues to be attacked by NERV but is still not affected by their attempts. It then lets go of the bandolier and drops it to the ground next to its left leg. After that, it reaches for its missile launcher with both hands and pulls it off its back. It then holds the launcher with its right arm curled around it while aiming it with its left hand and points it towards the mountain region, which is where the attacks from NERV are coming from. This causes Misato to panic as she uncrosses her arms and takes a few steps forward. "It's going to attack!" She then looks at the others while saying with a commanding tone, "Do whatever you can to stop it. If we don't, then we won't be able to stall anymore!"

While still being attacked by NERV, Dummy Eva 01's focus is still towards where the attacks are coming from. It then makes the launcher release a missile and it flies towards the mountain area very quickly. Once it comes into contact with the mountain area, a giant explosion is created while causing a pretty big shock-wave that spreads throughout the nearby area. As a result, everyone in Central Dogma feel a small tremor that was caused by the shock-wave They are then horrified at how effective the enemy's launcher was when it's revealed that the mountain area is almost completely gone. Ritsuko watches on as well while being stunned by what she saw and thinks to herself, "I can't believe how powerful that missile was! Although I'm sure our Evas can handle it, I'm still concerned about how incredible that weapon is!"

Misato grits her teeth while clenching her right fist and says to herself, "SEELE really is tough! Even though we have more Evas, there's still a chance that the children will have a hard time defeating it!" After that, Misato closes her eyes while trying to calm herself down. Once she regains her composure, she opens her eyes to look at the main screen again and confidently says to herself, "But I know that they will beat it. I have faith in them."

Aoba watches the main screen for a moment and then sees a notification on his screen out of the bottom corner of his eyes, which causes him to look at it in shock. Afterwards, he suddenly smiles and yells out, "The pilots are in their Evas and they're ready to launch!"

Misato smiles after hearing Aoba while keeping her eyes on the main screen. She then yells out with optimism in her voice, "Great! Now get ready to launch Units 00, 01 and 02 north of the enemy! Then when they arrive, launch the other three Evas south from the enemy! That way it will be surrounded!"

Maya nods as she's typing with her eyes focused on her screen. "Alright! Units 00, 01 and 02 are ready to be launched!"

After hearing what Maya said, Misato yells out in a commanding tone, "Then let's launch them!"

Maya nods as she finishes typing and yells out with a composed tone, "And they're off!" With that statement, Units 00, 01 and 02 are then launched. They quickly reach the surface and now stand at a small distance away from Dummy Eva 01. Afterwards, each of them slowly gets off their individual launch pad while intently staring the enemy Eva down.

Misato yells out again, "Now send out the next three!" Right after Misato gave that order, the necessary steps are taken and then Units 03, 04, and the Extra Eva are launched. After a few seconds go by, the three Evas reach the surface and stand on the launch pad while observing the enemy's back from a distance.

Hikari nervously makes her Eva get off its launch pad as she looks towards the enemy and mumbles to herself, "Stay calm... I need to stay calm."

Touji's image suddenly appears on Hikari's right side screen as he looks at her with a confident expression while slowly moving his Eva in front of the Extra Eva. "Don't ya worry, Hikari! Like I said before, I won't let anyone hurt ya!"This statement surprises Hikari as she blushes and looks at Touji. She then gets a bit nervous again as she nods at him with a light smile.

Kensuke watches the enemy with a serious glare and says in a stern tone, "Alright you two! We have to focus now! We have a job to do!"

Both Touji and Hikari are surprised by what Kensuke just said. They then each appear on a side screen to the left of Kensuke and just look at him in disbelief. After that, Misato closes her eyes and covers her mouth with her right hand while giggling a little. She then puts her hand down onto her hip as she looks up at the main screen again and says into her microphone with a content tone, "That's the spirit, Kensuke. For your first time in the battlefield, you re doing a good job at keeping your composure."

Kensuke smiles happily due to Misato's comment. He then closes his eyes and scratches the back of his head with his left hand while being a bit embarrassed. "Oh come on. Don't say something like that while I'm trying to act tough."

Asuka's voice suddenly comes through the intercom of Unit 04 as she yells out while being quite irritated, "Hey, stooge! Why don't you take your own advice and stay focus!"

Kensuke suddenly opens his eyes as he looks towards the enemy while being a bit surprised. Determination then takes over as Kensuke stares down the enemy. "You're right, Asuka! I need to remain focused!"

Asuka sighs while still being a bit irritated as she thinks, "Dummkopf..." During the time that everyone was talking with each other, Dummy Eva 01 had grabbed its bandolier from the ground and places it over its left shoulder. It then pulls out one of the missiles from the straps that holds it and loads it into the launcher.

Rei makes a serious expression while looking at the enemy. "This is not good. We need to make our move before it fires."

Misato crosses her arms with seriousness showing and says with a commanding tone, "Rei's right. Now here's the plan. You guys will spread out a bit to surround the enemy. We'll send you the coordinates of where each of you should go. Then, we'll send you long distance weaponry so you can attack that bastard from a safe distance. You guys got that?"

The children respond at the same time with confidence. "Yes!"

Misato turns to look at the NERV personnel in Central Dogma with the same seriousness from before. "You guys know what to do, right?!" In response, Central Dogma look at her and nod in agreement. They then all do what must be done to go with her plan. The children then all received the coordinates of where they should go and they quickly get into position. Their positioning has them form a spread out circle around the enemy with Unit 01 having Unit 02 on its right and Unit 00 on its left while the Extra Eva has Unit 03 on its right and Unit 04 on its left. Then at the same time, as they stand at their selected location, a building comes from the ground and reveals that there's an Eva-sized version of a M134 Minigun in it. The children then have their Evas grab onto their individual minigun and point it at the enemy.

Dummy Eva 01 looks back and forth between each Eva while pointing its missile launcher at each of them. It then stops and aims directly at the Extra Eva. This causes Hikari to worry while looking at the launcher being pointed at her. At the same time, Touji becomes enraged by the fact that the enemy Eva is aiming its weapon at Hikari as he glares at it and yells out, "Ya asshole! How dare ya point that thing at her?!"

Misato yells out to the pilots in a commanding tone. "Everyone, fire!" The children then all start to fire their minigun at the enemy. The bullets collide into the enemy Eva and quickly form a cloud of smoke as the children continue to fire. They then stop firing and wait patiently to see the results of their attack.

Hikari makes a nervous expression as she watches the smoke. Suddenly, a loud wind-like sound is heard coming from the smoke just before a missile comes through it. The missile heads straight towards the Extra Eva with a good amount of speed. This surprises Hikari as she gasps while flinching."

Misato shouts out in panic while watching the main screen, "Hikari!" Both Touji and Kensuke then quickly make their Evas run towards the Extra Eva. They then stop right in front of Hikari's Eva while deploying their A.T. Fields. This results in them being able to block the missile, but this doesn't keep the missile from exploding, which it does immediately after coming into contact with Unit 03 and 04's A.T. Field.

Shinji feels the shock-wave from the explosion as he makes a worried expression and yells out, "Guys!" The smoke that had surrounded Dummy Eva 01 has completely cleared after a while. It's revealed to be facing towards Touji and the others' location while its launcher has some smoke coming out from the end of the barrel as it's still pointed at them. The smoke that was formed from the explosion caused by the missile then clears and reveals that all three of the Evas are alright. This is thanks to the combined efforts of Unit 03 and Unit 04's A.T. Field.

Due to seeing that Unit 03, 04 and Extra Eva are alright, everyone in Central Dogma give out a huge sigh of relief. Shinji also sighs for the same reason while lowering his head with his eyes closed. He then opens his eyes and realizes that the ground is shaking a bit while thinking with a bit of concern being displayed, "What's going on?" Suddenly, a right hand with claws as fingers shoots out from underneath the ground and firmly grabs onto Unit 01's left leg. This causes Shinji to gasp in shock while pulling his head back. Unit 01 is then forcefully pulled down under the ground by the hand.

Asuka sees out of the corner of her eye that Unit 01 was dragged down into the ground. Seeing that causes her to make a horrified expression as she screams out towards the area where Unit 01 once stood, "Shinji!"

Misato starts to panic as she's looking at the main screen. "What just happened?!"

Hyuga's surprised as information is displayed on his screen. "I can't believe this! There's actually another life form that's confirmed to be underground!"

Misato's shocked from what she just heard as she looks at Hyuga. She then rushes up next to him while looking at his screen from his left. "How's that possible?! We should have been able to notice it beforehand!"

Hyuga makes a stressed expression as he's typing. "It seems like it had appeared out of nowhere!"

Ritsuko yells out while looking at the main screen, "Colonel, look!"

Misato looks up with a hint of concerned. She then sees that the main screen is now showing an extra image and it reveals that Unit 01 has come through the ceiling of the Geofront. Unit 01 continues to fall towards Dogma as Misato yells out while panicking, "Shinji!"

Shinji screams while holding onto his controls as his Eva descends to the ground of Dogma and crashes into it. Shinji's a bit shook up from the impact of the crash. He then tries to regain his composure while getting his Eva up on its feet. Dummy Eva 02 then comes through the ceiling of the Geofront while sending out a loud screech as it descends towards Unit 01. *Description Note: This Eva looks almost exactly like Dummy Eva 01 with the exception of its mouth being open and being the color light brown with some black on its arms and legs. Also, it has razor-sharp claws as its weapons* After Unit 01 gets to its feet, Shinji looks up and sees that the enemy is heading straight for him. This causes him to make a surprised expression as he desperately makes Unit 01 jump backwards while barely dodging the enemy.

As a result, Dummy Eva 02 instantly crashes into the ground, which causes a fog of smoke to be formed. Shinji then lands his Eva at a small distance away from the enemy while still being a bit surprised. "Sheesh! That was too close!"

After saying that, Shinji makes an expression of realization and then looks up at the ceiling of the entry plug while saying with mild panic emitting, "Wait a minute! I didn't know there was another Eva!"

Misato responds while being quite stressed out. "We didn't either, Shinji! That coward was hiding until it saw its opportunity to attack you!"

Shinji becomes very concerned as he looks in front of him and sees the enemy's shadowy figure while being covered by the smoke. "This isn't good. Not only do I have to fight an Eva that we didn't even know was here, I'm separated from the others too." He then looks up again while saying with a worried tone, "Misato, how are the others?"

Misato looks at Maya, who's looking at her, and says to her with a serious tone, "Well?" In response, Maya looks at Misato while being a bit confused about what she's asking for. She then realizes what Misato wants from her and turns to look at her screen as she starts to type on it. The main screen's focus then switches over to view the other pilots' situation. Misato then sees that the children are firing at Dummy Eva 01 and gets very irritated when she sees that the enemy isn't being bothered by the attack at all. "Damn! That bastard is tough! The pilots will have to get closer to neutralize its A.T. Field!"

Asuka's voice suddenly comes through the intercom as she says with a concerned tone, "Misato! What happened to Shinji?! Is he alright?!"

Misato calmly responds as her image appears on Asuka's right side screen while being at her usual spot again. "He's alright, but apparently, there was an enemy hiding underground this entire time and decided to choose Unit 01 as its target."

Asuka gets a bit upset while she has her Eva stop firing at the enemy. She then looks at Misato with determination. "I'll go help him!"

Shinji's image suddenly appears on Asuka's left side screen as he has a moderately confident expression. "Don't worry, Asuka. I can handle this on my own. You need to stay there and help the others."

Asuka looks at Shinji while being very surprised due to what he just said. She then gets irritated again and yells at him, "What the hell?! Just because you're the best pilot out of us, doesn't mean you're superman, you idiot! You can't always fight alone!"

Shinji smiles nervously while still looking at Asuka. "It's not like I think that way, Asuka. Anyway, you use to think that you didn't need any help to beat the angels. And you can do it because you're the Great Asuka Langley Soryu." He then chuckles after regaining some of the confidence he had earlier.

Asuka makes an annoyed expression while blushing a little bit as she glares at him. She then closes her eyes as she turns her head away from him while being a bit flustered. "Oh, shut up!"

Rei's voice then comes out of nowhere as she yells out with urgency, "Soryu! Watch out!"

Asuka's surprised at hearing Rei yelling and quickly looks to the direction of where the enemy is. She then sees that it's aiming its missile launcher at her and this causes her to be even more surprised. What had happened was that Dummy Eva 01 had already reloaded its launcher while being attacked by the other Evas' miniguns in the attempt to diverge its attention from Unit 02. Unfortunately for them, its A.T. Field continues to protect it while Dummy Eva 01 maintains its aim on Unit 02 with its missile launcher. It then fires the launcher and the missile heads towards Unit 02 just as fast as the previous one.

This causes Asuka to gasp while being surprised again for a moment. She then quickly makes her Eva jump to the left so she can dodge the missile. She's successful in dodging the missile as it continues to travel in the air until it hits the ground and causes a giant explosion. Asuka then makes her Eva land while quickly turning it to face towards the area that just exploded as she's a bit stressed out. "Damn, that was really close!" She then looks towards Unit 00 and yells out to it, "I owe you one, First!"

Rei calmly watches the enemy with a hint of determination resonating in her eyes as she tightens her grip on her controls. "I'll collect on that later, but first we must defeat the enemy."

Asuka turns her Eva to face the enemy and nods with a serious expression. "Right!"

With that said, the scene changes to focus on Unit 01 and Dummy Eva 02. The smoke has cleared and Dummy Eva 02 is now intensely staring at Unit 01 while making a low, growling sound.

Shinji stares back at the enemy with some fierceness showing and thinks, "Alright. I know what I have to do. I need to beat this Eva and head back to the surface to help the others." He then smiles while thinking, "Although... I think the others would have won by then. They can handle it as long as they work together." After that, Shinji closes his eyes as he takes a deep breath and then looks at the enemy Eva again as he calmly exhales.

Dummy Eva 02 keeps staring at Unit 01 while rapidly moving its razor-like fingers as if it's trying to restrain itself from attacking. It then stops moving its fingers as it lets out a loud roar while tilting its body back. Afterwards, it suddenly torques its body forward and sprints toward Unit 01 with great speed. Misato then yells out with a slightly panicked tone due to seeing the enemy Eva advance, "Shinji, counter-attack!" Shinji nods in response while being determined as he makes his Eva point its minigun that it was still holding towards the enemy and starts to fire at it. Dummy Eva 02's A.T. Field suddenly appears and deflects the bullets as it continues to run towards Unit 01. It then swings its right arm and slices the minigun into three vertical pieces, which causes the minigun to blow up.

Shinji cringes as he feels a slight pain from his hands due to the explosion and his synchronization. He then tries to make his Eva back away from the enemy to gain some distance while thinking, "Darn it! I can't believe I let it destroy my weapon!" Unfortunately Dummy Eva 02 doesn't allow any distance to be made between them by continually swinging its arms in the attempt to strike Unit 01. As it does this, it makes a grunting sound with each swing. Shinji desperately makes his Eva dodge each attack and then finally decides to make Unit 01 pull out a Prog Knife from its left pylon with its right hand. He then continues to make his Eva dodge the attacks while waiting for an opportunity to attack.

Misato makes a serious expression while watching the screen that displays Unit 01 and Dummy Eva 02. She then yells out with a commanding tone, "Alright, Shinji! Just keep dodging and when you have the chance, attack with everything you got!" After saying that, she looks at Maya and calmly asks her, "Is Shinji's A.T. Field up?"

Maya nods while looking at her screen. "It sure is! His sync ratio is at 96% as there isn't much damage to Unit 01!"

Misato smiles slightly while being quite content and then looks towards Ritsuko. "Now please tell me that the MAGI have found out something about the enemy Evas."

Ritsuko looks at her with an expression of disappointment as she's holding her laptop. "Unfortunately the MAGI were unable to determine the full extent of the enemies' capabilities."

Misato gets a bit irritated as she looks down at the floor and mumbles to herself, "Damn... I guess I'll have to leave it to them."

Aoba suddenly turns his head to look at Misato while panicking a little due to just receiving an urgent notification. "An unidentified, large object has been located!"

Misato's eyes widen as a result of hearing Aoba's cry as she looks at him with a shocked expression. "What?!"

The scene changes again to focus on Asuka and the other pilots while they continue to try to penetrate Dummy Eva 01's A.T. Field with their miniguns. While they're concentrating their efforts on Dummy Eva 01, a giant shadow appears as it shades the area that the children's Evas and Dummy Eva 01 are located.

Kensuke notices the sudden giant shade and stops firing his Eva's minigun. He looks up towards the sky afterwards and then makes a surprised expression while yelling out, "What's that?!" The other children stop firing as well and look up with concern due to Kensuke's outburst. They are all then surprised when they see a dark, unknown figure in the sky.

Hikari's now scared while still looking up at the unknown figure and yells out, "Could it be...?!"

Misato watches while stressing out and says with a lot of concern, "Please don't tell me that thing up there is what I think it is!"

Hyuga types on his computer with worry rising. His eyes then widen when he sees information that brings bad news. After that, Hyuga slowly looks at Misato with sadness showing in his eyes. "Unfortunately, it is."

Misato grits her teeth while being irritated as she's looking at the floor. "I said NOT to tell me!" She then looks up at the main screen with an enraged expression. "I can't believe there's another freaking enemy Eva to worry about!"

Dummy Eva 03 remains in the sky as it slowly flaps its wings and stares down at the other Evas while still casting its shadow. Its appearance looks almost exactly like the Mass Production Evas with the exception that its head is a diamond-like shape instead of being round. It's completely black as it has the same creepy smile that the Mass Production Evas have.

Asuka feels a chill go down her spine as she sees the flapping wings of the enemy Eva and it reminds her of the Mass Production Evas. She's then consumed with rage as she glares at it while she says to herself in a whisper, "I hate those fucking wings...! I was lucky to keep control of my anger during the simulation... But for those bastards to make one that looks SO much like them...!" She then yells out while being very mad, "Well that just pisses me off!" After Asuka made that statement, Unit 02 points its minigun at Dummy Eva 03 and starts to fire it while passionately yelling with intensity showing on her person.

Misato yells out with worry overtaking her expression, "Calm down, Asuka! Don't let your anger get the best of you!"

Dummy Eva 03 keeps flapping its wings as the bullets heads towards it. The bullets then collide with its A.T. Field and are unable to penetrate it. This causes Asuka to be filled with even more rage as she yells out while still firing at Dummy Eva 03, "You bastard! I'm going to get you!"

Rei looks at Unit 02 while being very concerned about the way Asuka's acting. She then notices out of the corner of her left eye that Dummy Eva 01 is reloading its missile launcher. As a result, she turns her attention towards it with seriousness taking over and thinks to herself, "That Eva will most likely aim for her again since she's busy with the other enemy Eva." She then quickly makes her Eva rush towards Unit 02 and has it stand in front of it while pointing her minigun at Dummy Eva 01. At the same time, everyone in Central Dogma is surprised at Rei's sudden positioning while even some of the pilots are taken back.

Misato watches on with her hands on her hips with a hint of concern as she thinks, "I can understand why Rei is doing what she's doing, but she still has that tendency of putting herself in harm's way to protect others, which isn't so bad." She then sighs while closing her eyes for a brief moment. Afterwards, Misato opens her eyes to look at the main screen again while mumbling, "I just hope that she isn't going to try to throw her life away with the belief that she'll just be replaced like she used to. She can't keep thinking like that because this time that won't happen and none of us could possibly stand the thought of losing her."

Asuka keeps shooting at Dummy Eva 03 while glancing at Unit 00 for a brief moment. She then returns her attention back to Dummy Eva 03 due to her being more focused on it than Unit 00. As she maintains her attention on the enemy, she says to Rei with an annoyed tone, "I don't need you to be my shield, First!" She then smiles while being a bit pleased. "But I do appreciate the back up!"

Rei smiles as well while looking at Dummy Eva 01 and nods with content. "I'm glad to hear that, Soryu." She then makes her Eva fire its minigun at Dummy Eva 01 again. Fortunately for Dummy Eva 01, its A.T. Field deflects the bullets as it finishes loading its launcher. After that, it points the launcher at Unit 00 and gets ready to fire it.

Kensuke makes his Eva rush towards Dummy Eva 01 from behind while shooting its minigun at the enemy's A.T. Field as he yells out, "Don't you dare aim that at Rei!" He then stops his Eva at a dangerously close distance from the enemy while still firing the minigun at it.

Rei makes a very worried expression as she yells out, "Aida, No! You're too close to it!"

Dummy Eva 01 quickly turns around to face Unit 04 and aims its missile launcher directly at Unit 04's mid-region. Kensuke then gasps as he pulls his head back a bit while having a shocked expression. Misato then yells out with a bit of urgency while removing her hands down from her hips to gesture with them a little. "Expand your A.T. Field, Kensuke!" Rei then suddenly makes her Eva drop the minigun while quickly pulling out two Prog Knives from Unit 01's pylons. Afterwards, Unit 00 runs towards the enemy as quickly as possible, and as it heads towards the enemy, Dummy Eva 01 fires its missile launcher.

This causes Kensuke to make a stunned expression as he's paralyzed with fear, which results in him not being able to respond to the enemy's attack. Unit 03 and the Extra Eva then suddenly appear behind Unit 04 while each grabbing onto an arm and pull Unit 04 down to the ground to lie on its back. At that exact moment, the missile barely misses Unit 04 while going right between Unit 03 and the Extra Eva. As a result, the missile goes all the way to the outskirts of the city and then a giant explosion is seen to symbolized that it had finally crashed into the ground. Central Dogma's personnel are completely surprised by what they have just witnessed.

Rei suddenly yells out with a commanding tone towards Touji, Hikari and Kensuke while almost reaching Dummy Eva 01 from behind, "Deploy your A.T. Fields!" After hearing Rei's command, Kensuke quickly gets Unit 04 back on its feet, and without questioning her, all three Evas deploy their A.T. Fields to maximum capacity. Rei then smiles a little as she thinks, "Right on time." With that thought, Unit 00 comes in contact with the enemy and strikes it on the back with both knives.

Dummy Eva 01 makes a loud squealing sound as it's struck by both Prog Knives. This is due to it having been hit right in its core unit and this causes it to suddenly explode while the explosion engulfs the four Evas' that was near Dummy Eva 01. As the explosion maintains its form, Central Dogma's personnel watches it until it dies down and creates a lot of smoke. After a little bit of time passing, the smoke fades away while revealing that all four Evas are alright. This causes everyone to give out a huge sigh of relief until they hear Shinji suddenly scream out of nowhere. Misato then becomes worried as she looks towards Hyuga. "What happened?! Why did Shinji scream?!"

Hyuga responds in a frantic manner. "I don't know! We were so busy with the others that we didn't keep an eye on Shinji's progress! Here it is on the screen now!" He then looks up at the main screen after typing something on his screen. Right after that, Misato looks up at the main screen as well while being quite concerned. She's then surprised when she sees that Unit 01 has been severely scarred with multiple, deep cuts through out its body.

Shinji's currently breathing heavily with his head lowered while bent forward. He's in a lot of pain while his Eva is at a small distance away from Dummy Eva 02. He then thinks to himself while gritting his teeth, "I can't believe how pathetic I am! I can't even defeat one Eva by myself! And after what I said to Asuka!" As Shinji's lost in thought, Dummy Eva 02 rapidly moves its fingers while staring at Unit 01. It hasn't received any real damage except for a few small cuts that were made by the Prog Knife.

Misato's voice comes through the intercom as she says with a worried tone, "Shinji! Are you alright?!"

Shinji looks up to see the enemy while still breathing heavily as he's a bit irritated. "I'm fine! I just have to beat it"! He then tries to calm himself down while asking, "How are the others?"

Misato responds while having a slightly sad tone. "They were able to defeat the Eva that had the missile launcher, but now they have to deal with another Eva that appeared not too long ago."

Shinji makes a stressful expression as he looks up. "Another one?! How many are we going to have to fight?!"

Misato watches the main screen that shows Unit 01 and the enemy while saying in a reassuring tone with her arms crossed, "Calm down, Shinji. Just hope that it will be the last one. At least they have defeated one." She pauses for a moment and then says while sounding a bit worried, "But unfortunately, Asuka seems to have gone ballistic. The enemy Eva actually holds a pretty strong resemblance to the Mass Production Evas."

Shinji's eyes widen while being surprised at what he heard. He then grits his teeth as he looks at Dummy Eva 02 with a glare while tightening his grip on the controls. "Then I have to go up there to help her. I don't want her to suffer like she did last time." He then passionately yells out as he makes his Eva charge at the enemy, "I'm going to kill you and help Asuka!"

Dummy Eva 02 stops moving its fingers while it roars at Unit 01. It then runs towards Unit 01 while having its claws ready to strike. Soon enough, both Evas come in contact with each other. Unit 01 collides into the enemy's A.T. Field and desperately tries to break through the A.T. Field with both Prog Knives that are still in its hands. Dummy Eva 02 gives out a creepy chuckle as it starts to swing its arms in the attempt to strike Unit 01.

Unit 01 barely dodges each swing while Shinji continues to have it strike the A.T. Field with the Prog Knives when possible. As Shinji does this, he's consumed with hate and anger while fiercely staring the enemy down. Afterwards, he yells out while feeling quite useless, "Shit! I can't get it! I need to help Asuka! But this bastard won't let me!"

Misato continues to watch what transpired with worry as she says softly to herself, "Shinji... Asuka means that much to you, huh?" She suddenly smiles while making an expression of relief. "I'm glad that you can be so honest with your feelings."

Maya turns to look at Misato with panic being displayed. "Colonel! Shinji's synchronization is climbing! It has already far surpassed 100% and it's nearing 200% as we speak!"

Misato keeps smiling as she looks at Maya and calmly says, "I'm not surprised." She then looks back at the main screen again. "He's fighting with the thought of protecting the girl he loves. Even if he's showing anger, he's angry for the right reason." She then makes an excited expression and yells out, "Keep it up, Shinji! Don't hold anything back for the sake of the person you love!" Unit 01's mouth then suddenly opens to display that it has gone berserk. At the same time, Shinji keeps passionately yelling while Unit 01 dodges the enemy's attacks and strikes the enemy's A.T. Field, which starts to crack more and more with each strike.

Hyuga clenches his hands with excitement. "Alright! He's slowly breaking through!"

Aoba yells out while getting excited as he's standing up, "Yeah! You can do it, Shinji! Show SEELE that their Evas are nothing in comparison to ours!"

Ritsuko smiles while looking at them and thinks, "It's good to see that everyone's getting pumped up at Shinji's determination." She then looks at the main screen as she continues to think while sadness slowly rises. "It must be good to be in love with someone who loves you back."

Shinji dodges a right swing from the enemy and then gives out one final yell. With that yell, Unit 01 strikes the A.T. Field with the Prog Knife that's in its left hand and successfully breaks through while stabbing the enemy's right rib-region. Dummy Eva 02 then lets out a pain filled roar while stopping its arms from swinging. Shinji sees his opportunity immediately after Dummy Eva 02 stops swinging its arms and then quickly has Unit 01 stab the neck of the enemy with its right knife. This causes the enemy to roar in pain again as Unit 01 then snap off the blades of the Prog Knives, so they would stay embedded into the enemy.

After that, Unit 01 let's go of the handles of the knives while grabbing onto the enemy's neck and starts to mercilessly choke it. While being choked, Dummy Eva 02 quickly grabs onto Unit 01's arms in the attempt to make it let go as some screeching sounds escapes it mouth. Unit 01 ignores the efforts of the enemy while forcefully pushing Dummy Eva 02 onto the ground. It continues to maintain its hold on the enemy's neck as it pins Dummy Eva 02's body with its left knee while adding more pressure to the neck.

Misato continues to watch Unit 01 apply pressure to the enemy's neck while thinking with seriousness showing on her face, "That's it, Shinji... You almost got it... Just a little more..."

Dummy Eva 02 suddenly releases its grip on Unit 01's arms and grabs onto Unit 01's head in the attempt to make Unit 01 concede first. Shinji ignores the enemy's attempt to break free while having a determined expression and screams out, "Let's see how you work without your head!" Unit 01 then moves it hands to the head of Dummy Eva 02 and with as much force as possible, rips off the enemy's head while letting go of it. As result, the head is sent flying up in the air and crashes into the ground.

Once it hits the ground, everyone in Central Dogma start to celebrate. As they celebrate, Shinji makes Unit 01 stand above the defeated enemy Eva as he tries to calm himself down while looking at the defeated enemy. He then looks up towards the ceiling and thinks to himself with concern showing, "Asuka..."

Misato smiles as she watches Unit 01 standing tall. She then looks towards Maya with a bit of worry. "How are the others?"

Maya quickly types on her screen's keys in response to Misato's question. She then looks up at the main screen while having stopped typing and says, "Viewing now!"

Misato suddenly sees on the main screen that all the Evas are firing their miniguns at Dummy Eva 03. This causes Misato to become worried while saying to herself, "This is going to be tough! There's no way they can penetrate its A.T. Field from that distance!"

Dummy Eva 03 continues to flap its wings as its A.T. Field defends it from the bullets. Suddenly, it stops flapping its wings for a moment, and then makes its wings do a huge flap that causes its A.T. Field to expand. This results in all the bullets to be deflected and sent back towards the children's Evas. The children are surprised at what the enemy has just done. After a couple of seconds, they regain some composure and quickly deploy their individual A.T. Fields to block the bullets. Dummy Eva 03 then smiles in a creepy manner while turning its attention to look at Unit 02. It then launches itself to fly straight at Unit 02 with a good amount of speed.

Asuka looks at the enemy while it heads towards her. She then becomes a bit irritated and yells out with confidence brimming, "Come and get me!" After saying that, she starts to fire the minigun at the enemy once again. Dummy Eva 03's A.T. Field protects it from the bullets as it comes into contact with Asuka's Eva and collides into it. Asuka closes her eyes as she yelps in pain while her Eva falls to its back. Its arms are pinned against the ground by the enemy while Dummy Eva 03 is also putting its entire weight on Unit 02's body. The sight of this causes Central Dogma's personnel to become quite worried while still observing the battle.

Misato's worried for a moment as well. She then regains her composer while yelling out in a commanding tone, "Get up, Asuka! Don't let that piece of crap beat you so easily!"

As if taunting Asuka, Dummy Eva 03 continues smiling while its face is extremely close to Unit 02's face as it keeps holding Unit 02 down. Asuka then opens her eyes and sees the enemy Eva smiling at her. This causes her to remember the Mass Production Evas again while thinking about what Misato just said and that causes her to become furious. At the exact moment Asuka becomes furious, her Eva goes berserk with its green eyes lighting up. Asuka then makes her Eva forcefully break free from Dummy Eva 03's grip and quickly makes her Eva punch the enemy in the face with its left fist. The force of the punch makes Dummy Eva 03 get off of Unit 02 due to it being so unexpected. It then staggers a bit while taking a few steps back as Asuka makes her Eva stand up on its feet. She then has it glare at the enemy while she's extremely pissed off.

Misato's worried again while thinking, "It seems that Asuka couldn't take it anymore. That enemy Eva just looks way too much like the Mass Production Evas."

Asuka passionately screams while being enraged. She then thrusts Unit 02's right arm towards the enemy while making a fist. Amazingly enough, it's able to penetrate through Dummy Eva 03's A.T. Field and goes right into the enemy's stomach with a lot of force. As a result, Dummy Eva 03 screeches out in pain while tilting its head back as its wings are extended out. Asuka then makes a slightly demented expression as she continues to make her Eva apply pressure to the region that was penetrated.

Dummy Eva 03 continues to screech out in pain while grabbing onto Unit 02's arms. Asuka quickly reacts to the enemy touching her Eva and yells at it while being upset. "Don't you dare touch mama!" She then makes Unit 02's right hand grab onto the enemy's face and crushes it, which defeats it, but Asuka doesn't take note of it due to being so angry. She then decides to forcefully throw the enemy's body onto the ground and makes Unit 02 pull back its arms. She then attempts to thrust both of Unit 02's fists back into the enemy's body. But right before they reach it, Unit 01 appears in front of Unit 02 while standing above the enemy's body and catches both of Unit 02's hands with its own. This surprises Asuka as she looks up at Unit 01 and yells out, "Shinji?!"

Shinji's image suddenly appears on the upper screen as he's giving Asuka a reassuring smile. "It's over, Asuka. You can stop now."

Asuka's still surprised for a moment while looking up at Shinji. She then remembers that this is similar to what happen in the simulation training. This causes her to happily smile at him while nodding. "You're right. Thank you, Shinji."

Shinji closes his eyes while smiling with his head slanted towards the right a bit. "Anytime, Asuka."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

So far this is the longest episode in this series and I have been making each episode so far pretty damn long. *Laughs* I decided to end the episode right after the last enemy Eva was defeated. I remember that the NGE would end sometimes right after the battle is over without anything else really needing to be said, so that's what I did. I hope you all enjoyed the episode and look forward to the next one. Can't make any promises of what it will be about, but I will do my best like always to entertain you.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	6. Episode 6

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

I'm pretty content at how well I'm doing so far. I mean, my episodes are doing well with being good lengths. I'm not sure if everyone likes my episodes, but that won't stop me from writing. After having their first Eva battle, a lot of you probably assume that I will give the pilots a break. In a way you guys are right, but I will be using this episode to set-up for something quite interesting. So look forward to this one while trying not to assume that much because there will be, and I repeat, there will be something quite interesting. Enjoy and remember I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion. Gainax and Hideaki Anno are the ones who own it. Also, one day I will like to meet the great, creative minds of the Gainax team, which obviously includes Anno.

Episode 6: America's Decision... The Problem Child Appears

With the children's first victory behind them, some time goes by and the efforts to rebuild the city have come to an end. Tokyo-03 now looks the way it use to look before 3rd Impact, although there still remains some damage from their recent fight with SEELE. Also, the lake of blood that was made from the Giant Rei has been isolated from everyone due to it being nearly impossible of getting rid of. With Tokyo-03 being restored, this brings reality back to the children in terms of schooling. The children will have to study to make up the time they weren't in school and take an exam to show that they are competent enough to go to the next grade level. *In the series, the children were in 8th Grade, but with all the dangers of the final angels, school had been stopped since all the civilians had left. Now that it will be spring time soon, the new school year will commence for the children soon after that and they will experience their 9th grade year, which is their last year in middle school*

The children have been given a couple of weeks to study for the exam and that's currently their main focus, aside from their synchronization tests that they have to take from time to time. At this very moment, the children are in the apartment while Kaji's still out doing his search for any leads on the whereabouts of SEELE. In Misato's case, she's at NERV trying to come up with strategic plans for the next confrontation with SEELE. *Whenever the pilots are at the apartment or going out somewhere, they are wearing street clothing, but once school starts, they will go back to wearing their school uniforms most of the time*

Touji's currently sitting on the couch that faces towards the television as his legs are crossed while on the couch. He's stressing out a lot while trying to study with multiple opened books placed on his crossed legs as he's staring at them. Hikari sits next to Touji's right while calmly reading the book in her hands that's close to her face. At the same time, Kensuke and Rei are sitting on the other couch that's adjacent to the couch Hikari and Touji are on. They're both studying multiple books while Kensuke appears to be a bit stressed out, but not as bad as Touji. Rei on the other hand is showing no real emotion as she reads the books.

Meanwhile, Shinji and Asuka are both at the table in the kitchen while looking at the same book since the only thing that Asuka has to work on is her Kanji since she's already learned most of what is needed to be studied.

Shinji helps her with that as she gives her help to him when it comes to learning the material. Shinji sits in one of the chairs while Asuka stands really close to his right as they're both leaning towards the book.

Touji gets very irritated after a while of trying to study his books and then pulls his head back with his hands on his head. "I can't do this! Everythin' is so freakin' hard!"

The others just look at Touji with a hint of concern due to his outburst while Hikari gives him a sympathetic smile and says with a caring tone, "I know it's hard, Suzuhara. But we all need to study and do are best so we can go to the next grade."

Touji turns his attention to Hikari with a depressed expression while putting his hands down to grab onto his legs. "I know, Hikari. But my damn head hurts from all this studyin'."

Asuka stands up straight and looks at Touji with irritation showing. "Stop your complaining! This is hard on all of us!"

Touji turns his entire body to face Asuka with annoyance emitting while putting his knees on the couch to stand on. "How the hell is it hard for you?! I thought you graduated from college!"

Asuka puts her hands on her hips while taking a few steps towards Touji and then leans forward with irritation being noted. "I did, you stupid jock! I'm just bad with the Kanji! That's why Shinji's helping me!" She points at

Touji with her right hand while straightening her posture. "Don't think you're the only one that's having a hard time!" Asuka then puts her hand down while slightly tilting her head back to display a confident demeanor.

Shinji watches both of them with a bit of concern and then closes his eyes while nervously smiling. "Now calm down, guys. There's no need to argue." He opens his eyes to peer at Asuka. "Now let's get back to studying, alright?"

Asuka looks at Shinji while still being a bit irritated. She then closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and opens them while smiling at Shinji. "Alright. Let's get back to work." Asuka looks at the book while leaning forward and tries her best to figure out what it says with some aggravation showing.

Shinji smiles as he turns his head to look at Touji and sincerely says, "Just do your best, Touji. I'm sure you'll pass."

Touji's surprised by Shinji's statement while making eye contact with him. He then smiles and nods with confidence taking over. "Hell yeah! I'll do my best and kick that test in the ass!" Touji turns back around and sits on the couch with his legs crossed again. He then veers his eyes to Hikari with a smile and whispers, "But I'll need your help though."

Hikari smiles at Touji and nods while blushing slightly. "I would love to help you." She closes her book and gets closer to Touji to see what he was studying. "Let's begin."

Touji maintains his focus on Hikari with happiness brimming and nods in agreement. After seeing what just transpired, Kensuke and Rei are a bit surprised at how everything turned out. They then look at each other for a moment and both smile while nodding. After doing that, they both calmly turn their attention back to their books so they can continue their studies.

As the children continue with their studies, a conversation is being held between Gendo and Fuyutsuki at Gendo's office. They have just received word from the 1st Branch that's located in America and decide to begin their discussion with that. *Side Note: The 1st Branch is the only remaining Branch in America since the 2nd Branch "Disappeared". Also, the state of Massachusetts is where the 1st Branch is located*

Fuyutsuki sits at the other side of Gendo's desk, which is an unusual sight since he normally isn't seen sitting down. His arms are folded together with his left leg placed over his right leg as Fuyutsuki gives Gendo a serious look. "So, you said that America has made their decision, correct?"

Gendo responds while calmly gazing at Fuyutsuki in his famous pose. "That is correct. They have agreed to give us Unit 05 and its pilot."

Fuyutsuki lightly smiles. "Well that's good news. I was worried that they would reject us." He then turns his head to look towards the right while being serious again. "After our first battle against SEELE, it became painfully obvious that they will be difficult to beat. Even though we do have six Evas, having seven wouldn't hurt." Fuyutsuki looks at Gendo out of the corner of his eyes while chuckling a little.

Gendo nods in agreement. "You're right, but there are some unfortunate news that I must address to you."

Fuyutsuki turns his head to look directly at Gendo with some concern being displayed. "And that would be...?"

Gendo sighs with his eyes closed and head lowered. He then looks at Fuyutsuki again while being quite serious. "Apparently, Unit 05 isn't entirely cleared to be sent here. For the time being, we will have to wait for the Eva to arrive, but I have been told that its pilot will soon be on the way, regardless."

Fuyutsuki becomes a bit more concerned. "What would be the point in that?"

Gendo retorts while moving his right hand to grab a cup of coffee that's to his left. "It seems like the pilot is impatient when it comes to waiting." He moves his left hand away from his mouth, takes a quick sip of the coffee and places it back on the desk with his eyes focused on the cup. "I was told that the pilot is a little too rash and has the tendency of doing things her way, without even thinking of the negative results that may come with her decision."

Fuyutsuki chuckles. "That kind of reminds me of the 2nd Child." His eyes widen after realizing something and leans towards Gendo while unfolding his arms to place them on the desk. "Wait! Did you say 'her'?!"

Gendo nods at Fuyutsuki while getting back into his usual pose. "Yes, the pilot is indeed a girl. From what I've been told, she's a very special case." Curiosity takes over Fuyutsuki's face as he's leaning back against his chair with his arms crossed. "What do you mean by that?"

Gendo states slowly while seeming to be quite bothered, "To put it simply... She's pretty much... A very happy person."

Fuyutsuki's quite confused by what Gendo said while raising his right eyebrow. "Happy?"

Gendo plainly responds to Fuyutsuki's question. "They said that she was a problem while having her in their possession. The reason is that..." He momentarily pauses while peering at the ceiling without moving his head and says with an emotionless tone, "She's just too happy when it comes to piloting an Eva."

Fuyutsuki's confusion maintains itself as he stares at Gendo while thinking, "Could there be such a child? To actually enjoy piloting Eva so much... It's unheard of." He looks towards the left side and thinks, "The new Fifth Child, Kensuke Aida, seems to enjoy the thought of piloting quite a bit. But even he has to be serious when itcomes to the dangerous situations that piloting Eva brings." Fuyutsuki then veers his attention back to Gendo and asks with some concern being displayed, "Do you think that she'll be like that when fighting against SEELE's Evas?"

Gendo simply replies. "From what they said, we can bet that she'll have a different outlook when it comes to piloting. Her enjoyment in piloting is the least of our concern as long as we keep that in mind. We'll just have to wait and see what happens." He closes his eyes while slightly lowering his head.

Fuyutsuki sighs as he closes his eyes for a moment and then looks at Gendo with some curiosity showing. "Anything else?"

Gendo briefly shakes his head with no change to his posture. "That would be it for that part." He then opens his eyes and lifts up his head to focus his attention on Fuyutsuki. "How are the pilots?"

Fuyutsuki makes a calm expression while tilting his head back to look up at the ceiling and stares at the diagram of the Athanasius Kirchner Sephirotic System that's embedded on it. "Everything is fine. Colonel Katsuragi is working on strategies that could possibly be used when fighting against SEELE's Evas. Though, I'm not too sure if they will work." He then looks at Gendo with his head still tilted back.

Gendo responds with a firm tone. "They could come in handy eventually, but until then, we need to have the pilots continue their training. Even though we are adding a new pilot, we can not relax for a moment. Who knows what the old man has up his sleeves, so we must be extremely cautious."

Fuyutsuki nods in agreement without removing his gaze from Gendo and then realizes something, which causes him to ask with mild curiosity, "By the way, any word from Mr. Kaji?"

Gendo gives a short nod. "Yes. Apparently, he's ruled out Europe as a possibility of being SEELE's hideout. He's now working on Africa and says that most likely they won't be there either."

Seriousness overtakes Fuyutsuki's expression while standing up with his arms uncrossed and puts both hands in his pockets. "That's pretty much two Continents right there. Just five more to go, although, I really doubt that they would be hiding out in Antarctica." He then turns to the left and walks around the desk. "Asia and North America will be the most difficult ones to look into, though."

Gendo calmly watches Fuyutsuki while saying, "That's correct, however, we must figure out where they are so we can take them down. If we're unable to find them, this war between us and them will never come to an end."

Fuyutsuki stops walking and stands next to Gendo from his right while nodding in agreement. "Indeed"

The conversation ends right there and the focus changes to a girl who's inside a dark room. Suddenly, multiple small screens start to reveal themselves one by one, which causes the dark room to slowly be revealed as the inside of an entry plug. The girl is wearing a green plugsuit that has white on the arms while also wearing a fairly larger helmet that covers the upper half of her face that allows only the lower half of her face to be seen. There are multiple cords extending from the entry plug that are connected to the girl's plugsuit and helmet as she's currently waiting to begin a routine check of her Eva, which is Unit 05.

The girl sits on the seat with both hands on the controls as she's tapping her fingers repeatedly on the controls to display how anxious she is while smiling. "I'm so excited that I get to go to Japan! Soon I'll pilot and kick some SEELE ass!" She then squeals out of joy while lowering her head.

A male voice suddenly comes through the intercom and says with a serious tone, "Concentrate, Problem Child. This will be your last synchronization with us. We don't need you to be leaving on a bad note."

A female voice comes through after the male voice had finished talking and says with a serious tone as well, "He's right. So just focus, Mari." Her tone then changes to sound concern. "Anyway, aren't you tired of moving so much?"

Mari looks upward while still being quite joyful. "Nah, I'm way too use to moving to actually complain." She then cocks her head back to gaze upward with sincerity brimming. "To be honest, I like moving to different places and meeting new people. After Unit 05 was rebuilt in the 5th Branch, I was told that me and it would be transferred here. I was kind of excited because I thought I was going to see someone I once met, but he turned out not to be here." Mari lightly giggles. "Although, I don't quite recall what he looked like, but I pretty much figured out he wasn't here when I was told that I'm the only child at this facility."

The male voice responds with a slightly surprised tone. "I didn't know that you were here before."

Mari nods while still looking downward. "I'm not surprised. Almost everyone that works here actually weren't here when I first came. And I haven't once mentioned it until now." She then makes an expression of realization while quickly looking upward again. "Wait a minute! Did you just call me by my name?!"

The female voice giggles a little. "It sure took you a while to realize that." She giggles again.

Mari smiles while being quite content. "That's the first time I've been called by my first name while I've been here." She then slants her head slightly to the right. "I guess you guys are going to miss me, huh?" Mari softly laughs while winking with her right eye.

The male voice chuckles a little bit and then says with a relaxed tone, "I guess I did become accustomed to you being here for the pass few months. To see you go is actually a bit difficult."

The female voice adds with a caring tone. "Indeed and we wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you. So try not to be so reckless like you are during simulation training, alright? And try to find yourself a nice boy."

Mari's surprised by what she just heard and then defensively says while leaning a bit forward, "What are you implying?! That my taste in guys so far has been bad?!" She pauses for a moment while quickly calming herself down and then unexpectedly giggles with her head lowered. "And I can't guarantee that I won't be myself. You guys know how I am." Mari then cheerfully smiles.

The female voice sighs and retorts with a sad tone. "That's what I'm afraid of."

The male voice chuckles a little due to him being amused by what the female voice had said. "Same here." He then takes notice of something. "Oh...! The synchronization test is over. You can get out and get ready to head for Japan."

Mari yells out of joy while putting her hands up in the air, "Wahoo!" She promptly puts her head down while calmly placing her hands on her helmet and takes off the helmet. After doing that, Mari looks up at the ceiling as her hair elegantly flows due to the movement she made. She then fixes her glasses into place with her left hand while putting the helmet down next to her with the other hand. After that, Mari lowers her left hand and says to herself in a low volume, "I look forward to seeing the other children. I wonder if the 3rd Child lives up to his reputation."

Having said that, Mari sighs with her head lowered while shuting her eyes. "It's too bad that I will be going without Unit 05, but..." She slowly opens her eyes while spacing out. "I might get the chance to pilot that Eva and show its pilot the hidden potential it has." Mari then faintly smiles.

With that, the focus suddenly changes again and this time it's on SEELE's hideout. All twelve members are having a meeting while in the form of the Black Monoliths in a room that is only illuminated by spotlights that are focused on each member.

SEELE # 1 *Keel* says with a serious tone, "I've received information that America has agreed to send the original Unit 05 and its pilot, Mari Illustrious Makinami, to help Tokyo-03."

SEELE # 7 asks with concern, "Is there any way that we can prevent this?"

Keel responds to SEELE # 7's question. "I once spoke to the pilot some time back. It seemed like what she desired was just to pilot for herself and for her own personal reasons. I highly doubt that she will be that devoted to helping them if it doesn't suit her desires. Although, I could be wrong."

SEELE # 6 asks with a hint of suspicion, "How could you be wrong?"

Keel calmly states, "I'm not too sure of all of her intentions, so it's all by chance if she'll be devoted or not to NERV. She could turn out to be a dangerous enemy."

SEELE # 3 joins in on the conversation. "That's certainly true. Should we be worried?"

SEELE # 11 suddenly cuts in with an arrogant tone. "I don't see why we should be worried. We saw what NERV's pilots are capable of, and it wasn't that impressive. One more pilot wouldn't make a difference in my opinion."

SEELE # 2 states with a serious tone, "I agree. Considering our pilots' capabilities, they could easily beat NERV's pilots.

SEELE # 10 responds to SEELE # 2's statement with coldness in his voice. "Let's not assume that. To underestimate the enemy is a grave error that many humans tend to make."

SEELE # 3 asks with curiosity after hearing SEELE # 10's words. "Now that I think of it, what will be our next move?"

Keel answers SEELE # 3's question. "We will unleash our next attack." He then directs his attention towards SEELE # 4. "How's the progress on our Evas?""

SEELE # 4 simply replies. "Evas 9 and 10 are almost complete while 11 through 15 are in the middle stages of creation. Our technicians are slowly starting on Evas 16 through 20 as we speak."

SEELE # 7 cuts in with a concerned tone. "When will we have our Unit Evas worked on? It's just a matter of time before we decide to have our pilots go on the attack."

Keel calmly retorts. "Like I said before, our ace will determine that. Although, we will have our technicians start working on Unit 06 and Unit 07 once all the Dummy Plug-based Evas are completed." SEELE # 6 says with a curious tone, "Why is it necessary to wait for our ace to decide for that? I understand that you'll want him to lead the other pilots, but to give him that much control is illogical. Also, there are two others that we have better control of than him."

Keel firlmy states as SEELE # 6 finished talking. "The reason why is quite obvious. One of those two that you just mentioned can't be trusted after he decided to ignore his destiny. The other is still not ready to unleash his full potential, even though he would love to compete with our ace to prove who's superior." He pauses for a moment and then continues to say, "We must wait for the right time. That time will surely come after our ace's decision."

SEELE # 2 plainly says while not being too supportive with what Keel had just said, "I guess we have no choice, but to leave it at that. So what Evas will be sent to attack NERV?"

Keel responds without hesitating "After how the last attack went, I had already made the choice of which Evas to be sent. They will be on their way soon." He chuckles in a menacing manner.

The conversation between SEELE ends and the day continues on until it ends. The next day then comes and things start off normally for the children. Kaji had returned from his search for SEELE's whereabouts and enjoys watching the children struggle as they study for their exam. Misato's there with them due to having the day off from work and she's enjoying the fact that Kaji has returned. Unfortunately for all of them, their time together was cut short the moment they hear the city's infamous emergency alarm go off. It's revealed that there are two Evas heading towards Tokyo-03 while both of them looking exactly alike with the exception of one being yellow with some light red on the arms and legs. The other one being the opposite, which means its light red with some yellow on the arms and legs. Their heads look like Unit 00's and Extra Eva's head with the exception that they have three eyes that form a triangle while having a yin yang symbol in the middle.

As a result of the alarm going off while the enemy Evas head towards the city, Tokyo-03 goes through its usual routine of evacuating the civilians while submerging the city. As this happens, the children, Misato and Kaji head towards NERV, and while they head there, it's promptly revealed in Tokyo-03 that Mari's on the roof of a building that's slowly starting to submerge underneath the ground. *Mari's wearing the same clothing that she wore when meeting Shinji in the Rebuild of Evangelion, which looks like a school uniform. She also has a parachute bag on her back as she's holding a book bag with her left hand*

Mari has a smile on her face as she's looking towards the direction of the enemy Evas with her right hand on her hip. She then walks up to the ledge of the building, looks down at the ground with a curious expression and then mutters, "I guess I should go to NERV to show them what I can do. I just hope they won't mind that I'll be taking one of their Evas." Mari gives out a short giggle and then jumps off the building.

As she falls towards the ground, Mari pulls on a lever that's on the left strap of the parachute bag with her right hand and lets out the parachute. As a result, she slowly descends to the ground while softly saying to herself, "It's a good thing I brought the plugsuit that can connect directly with someone else's Eva. Plus, it's the plugsuit that fits perfectly with my chest." Mari then giggles again with her eyes closed.

Eventually, Mari lands on the ground and after taking off the parachute, she makes her way to NERV while the children, Misato and Kaji are about to reach NERV. Meanwhile in Central Dogma, everyone's working hard while waiting for Misato and the others. They are currently being led by Gendo and Fuyutsuki about what to do.

Gendo sternly declares while being in his usual pose as he's sitting at his personal area, "Be sure to have all the Evas ready for the pilots' arrival!"

Maya turns partially around towards her right to look at Gendo with concern. "But, sir! Unit 01 is still damaged quite a bit from last time! Is it wise to have it go out and fight?!"

Fuyutsuki intervenes while standing on Gendo's right and says with a serious tone, "We need to have all the Evas out there just in case! We can't leave anything to chance!"

Gendo's about to say something in addition to what Fuyutsuki said, but is interrupted by the phone that's attached to his personal area suddenly ringing. Gendo then looks at the phone for a moment with a serious demeanor, grabs it with his right hand and places the phone against his right ear while calmly stating, "Ikari here."

Mari's voice comes through the phone and says with a slightly joyful tone, "I'm here."

Some concern can be seen on Gendo's expression as he gazes at the phone out of the corner of his eyes. "Who is this?"

Mari giggles a little as it's revealed that she's in the girls' locker room while putting on a pink plugsuit that has the number "5" on the back. As she's doing that, Mari holds up the cellular to her ear with her right shoulder while contentedly replying. "I'm the 6th Child. Although, I was better known as the Problem Child due to how reckless I can be." She giggles again.

Gendo's a bit surprised at first since he wasn't expecting Mari to already be in NERV and then quickly regains his composure to ask with a stern tone, "How long have you been here?"

Mari smiles as she finished putting on her plugsuit by pressing the button on her wrist to fasten the plugsuit onto her body. She then holds the cellular up with her right hand and looks at the ceiling with her head cocked back. "Not that long. So, can I show you what I got?"

Gendo narrows his eyes while looking down at the desk. "How will you do that? You're Eva isn't here."

Fuyutsuki makes a surprised expression while watching Gendo and thinks, "Could it be that America's pilot is already here?!"

Mari exits the locker room while maintaining her smile and walks down the hallway that leads to the Evas' Cage. "I can pilot someone else's Eva."

Gendo peers at the main screen that shows the enemy Evas' location. "I don't believe that would be a good idea considering our current situation."

Mari softly laughs without having ceased her advancement to the Evas' Cage. "Don't worry. I'll show you what I got. I'll also show you something very interesting." She then smiles with confidence brimming.

Gendo narrows his eyes again with a profound amount of seriousness. "You'll show me something very interesting? What do you mean by that statement?"

Mari reaches the doorway that leads to the Eva's Cage and stands in front of it while saying with a cheerful tone, "You'll see." The door then opens while Mari's eyes immediately light up with excitement by the sight of the Evas within that giant room.

Gendo responds to Mari's words with a plain tone. "I understand." He then hangs up the phone, gets back into his usual pose and stares at the main screen.

Fuyutsuki continues to look at Gendo with concern taking over. "Was that the new pilot?"

Gendo nods without diverting his attention from the main screen. "Indeed."

Fuyutsuki's concern slightly increases. "Then what's going on?"

Gendo firmly answers. "You shall see." He then looks towards Maya and says with a commanding tone, "Lt. Ibuki. Notify Colonel Katsuragi for the children to get ready, but to join us here instead of going to their Evas."

Maya turns her chair towards the right to look at him from a sideways position while being very surprised due to what Gendo just said for a moment. She then composes herself quite a bit while saying with concern in her voice, "Pardon me, sir! But aren't they suppose to go to their Evas to fight against the enemy?!"

Gendo calmly responds. "Don't worry about such a trivial matter. Just contact Katsuragi and tell her my orders. Understand?"

Maya hesitantly nods with a bit of a nervousness showing and then turns back around to face her screen. She gets ready to notify Misato and the others while Fuyutsuki returns his attention back to Gendo since he was looking towards Maya just now with a small amount of curiosity as he whispers, "Are you sure that's wise, Ikari?"

Gendo nods while focusing on the main screen. "Yes. We'll have America's pilot handle the enemy Evas."

Fuyutsuki's slightly surprised while retorting in a whisper. "Really?! But how will she be able to do that without her Eva?!"

Gendo calmly closes his eyes. "Just wait and we'll soon see." He opens his eyes to look at the main screen once again.

After Gendo made that decision, Maya contacts Misato and tells her Gendo's orders. Obviously, Misato is baffled by what she has just been told and is irritated at the fact there's no explanation being given, but she lets it go for the moment and heads towards Central Dogma. As she does this, she calls Kaji, who's waiting on the children as they are changing into their plugsuits and tells him to have the children go with him to Central Dogma instead of the cage that holds their Evas.

Soon enough, Misato gets to Central Dogma and stands at her usual spot with her eyes locked onto the main screen. She then looks at Central Dogma's personnel as it's notable that she's very annoyed. "Anyone mind telling me why we aren't sending the pilots?!"

Hyuga turns to look at Misato with worry emitting from his person. "We have no idea. It was Commander Ikari's decision."

Misato's baffled by what she just heard and then quickly turns her attention to Gendo while clearly being upset. "Why?! Why aren't our pilots in their Evas to fight, Commander?!"

Gendo gives Misato an indifferent look while in his usual pose. "There's no need for concern. We already have someone handling it."

Ritsuko makes a surprised expression while looking on from the right side of the room and thinks, "Someone's handling it?! But who?!"

Misato's about to say something in response to Gendo's statement, but then notices that Kaji and the children, who are wearing their plugsuits, enter the room. She then turns to face them with a serious look taking over.

Kaji walks up to Misato with a curiosity showing. "What's going on, Misato?"

Misato doesn't divert her eyes from Kaji for a moment and then turns to look at the main screen with some discontent now being displayed, "There's someone already handling it."

In response, the children and Kaji are all in shock as they're eyes are on Misato. Suddenly, Eva Unit 02 is launched, shortly reaches the location that's in front of the enemy Evas and then stares down the two Evas as everyone in Central Dogma is dumbfounded to see Unit 02 without Asuka in it.

Asuka's in shock while seeing her Eva's image on the main screen. She then grits her teeth while being consumed with rage and screams out with her hands clenched, "What the hell is this?!" Asuka hurriedly faces Misato while pointing at the main screen with her right hand. "Who the hell is piloting my Eva?!"

After hearing Asuka's outburst, Shinji looks at her with concern brimming. Misato then follows suit and makes eye contact with Asuka while a bit irritated. "I would like to know that as well." She promptly turns her attention back to the main screen while crossing her arms.

Meanwhile, Mari makes Unit 02 get off the launch pad with confidence radiating from her person and then suddenly pulls her head back to inhale through her nose. Afterwards, Mari breathes out through her mouth with her eyes shut and head lowered. She then opens her eyes while looking at Unit 02's controls with a smirk. "Even though the Eva has the smell of its pilot, it's still a pretty good smell." Mari inhales through her nose again while turning her focus onto the enemy Evas and breathes out through her mouth.

After doing that, determination gleams within Mari's eyes as she says happily, "It's time to show everyone what I got!" She removes her hands from the controls and brings them a little close to her while repeatedly opening and closing them. Unit 02 imitates Mari's action with its own hands to display a connection between her and Unit 02. Mari then grabs onto the controls again while maintaining her focus on the enemy Evas.

Dummy Eva 04 and Dummy Eva 05 both look at Unit 02 and just stare at it in a menacing way. Mari continues to smile as three buildings suddenly come from the ground. Two of them, which one is on Unit 02's left while the other one is on its right, open up and both reveal an Eva-sized, fully automatic M16 assault rifle. Unit 02 then grabs them and points them towards the enemy Evas while Mari says with a confident tone, "Let's see if you assholes like to eat bullets!" She then passionately yells while firing both assault rifles at the enemy Evas. In response, both enemy Evas combine their A.T. Fields together to block the bullets and deflect the bullets right back at Unit 02.

Mari's a bit surprised while seeing the bullets heading towards her. Unit 02 then stops firing and dodges the bullets by only moving its upper body. Once Unit 02 dodged all the bullets, Mari focuses on the enemy Evas with confidence returning. "Well, it seems like long distance attacks will never work." She then makes Unit 02 throw the rifles behind it and casually turns to the left to look at the third building.

At that moment, the building opens up while revealing a weapon that has the shaping of a gun, but actually is a blade that comes out. *This is the same one that Mari uses in Rebuild of Evangelion. It actually reminds me of the Silver Ranger's gun/blade from Power Rangers in Space -Laughs-* Unit 02 grabs onto the weapon with both hands while turning to face the enemy Evas. After that, Mari shouts out with her usual confident demeanor, "Let's see how you guys like this!" Unit 02 then runs towards them with a good amount of speed while firmly holding the bottom part of the weapon against its stomach.

Dummy Eva 04 suddenly steps right in front of Dummy Eva 05 and stares at Unit 02 while its hands are clenched together. Mari smiles at the sight of the enemy while making the blade of the weapon come out. She then makes Unit 02 jump into the air while pulling the weapon back as it's held upside down to point downward. "Don't think that you'll come out of this without a scratch, shit-head!"

With that said, Unit 02 descend while thrusting the weapon down towards Dummy Eva 04. In response, Dummy Eva 04 deploys its A.T. Field while raising its hands up towards Unit 02 and blocks the attack. Even though the attack was blocked, the momentum of their collision still causes a pretty big crater to be formed underneath Dummy Eva 04's feet as Mari continues to smile while commenting, "Damn, you're tough!" She then sees out of the corner of her left eye a shadowy figure and frantically turns her head to look while being mildly startled. "Huh?!"

Dummy Eva 05 appears next to the red Eva while extending out its arms towards Unit 02 and deploys its A.T. Field to collide into the unexpecting Eva. As a result, Unit 02 is sent flying while Mari yells out with a little distress showing, "Whoa!" Unit 02 then crashes onto the ground but the momentum makes it continue to role on the ground until it crashes into a large mountain that's located right outside of Tokyo-03 while there are multiple ruined buildings on it. Due to seeing what just transpired, everyone in Central Dogma gasp while being quite concerned.

Annoyance can be seen on Asuka's face as she mutters, "Whoever is piloting mama is going to pay for letting her get hurt!"

Shinji barely overhears Asuka and looks at her with concern while thinking, "I forgot... Asuka's mother is in Unit 02. She must be very mad that she isn't piloting it and that Unit 02 is getting hurt." He then looks back at the main screen and thinks, "Hopefully the person who's piloting is alright."

Unit 02's currently upside down now while up against the mountain and had let go of its weapon when Dummy Eva 05 attacked it. Mari has her eyes closed while trying to regain her composure and then slowly opens them with some pain being present due to the enemy's attack. "Ow... That hurt..."

Then, Mari's eyes widen from surprise as she sees that both enemy Evas are about to strike Unit 02 with their individual right fist. "Oh crap!" She then hurriedly pulls onto the controls to make Unit 02 roll onto its feet and swiftly jumps to the left while barely dodging the enemies' strike, which results in their fists crashing into the mountain.

Central Dogma's personnel all let out a huge sigh of relief as they saw that Unit 02 was able to dodge the duo attack.

Fuyutsuki looks at Gendo with a concerned expression. "Don't you think we should send the other pilots to her aid?"

Gendo glances at Fuyutsuki as he's in his usual pose with seriousness being displayed. "We'll send out the other pilots when it's believed that the 6th Child can no longer handle it." He then notices Misato talking to Maya and plainly says to Misato, "Is there something wrong, Colonel?"

Misato gives Gendo an irritated glare. "I'll tell you what's wrong! We have someone piloting the 2nd Child's Eva without knowing who that person is! We also don't even know why the other children aren't out there to help!"

Gendo responds to Misato's outburst with no real emotion. "Because the pilot wanted to show us what she's got. So I granted her the permission to do so."

Misato's surprised by Gendo's words while thinking, "She?! The pilot is a girl?!"

Asuka turns to look at Gendo with her right hand placed on the center of her chest while being very upset. "But why did it have to be my Eva?!"

Gendo calmly retorts to Asuka's cry with his focus on her. "I don't know the answer to that, however, we may see soon enough the reason for the 6th Child's choice."

Asuka continues to be upset and then turns back around to face the main screen while Mari stops Unit 02 at a safe distance away from the enemy Evas. Unit 02 then faces the enemy Evas while standing up straight. After that, Mari smiles while looking at the enemy as she's leaning forward with her hands on the controls. "Those two sure do know how to work together." She lowers her head with her eyes shut and giggles. "I guess, I'll have to use it if I want to win this. If I don't, those two bastards will just keep kicking my ass. I do want to make a good first impression after all."

Having said that, Mari opens her eyes while slowly rising to her feet. She now stands on the seat while looking at the enemies again and confidently says, "The situation would have been different if I had my Eva instead of using this one. My synchronization is lower than it normally would when using an Eva that doesn't completely accept me." She softly laughs with her eyes shut while having her head lowered again as she clasps her hands together. "But that's the reason why I'm going to do what I'm about to do."

Both enemy Evas are currently looking at Unit 02 while slowly walking towards it. As this happens, Misato has a concerned expression while thinking, "What now...? Commander Ikari won't let us send the other pilots, even though whoever is piloting Unit 02 is having a hard time against both of those Evas?! What is she going to do...?!"

Mari opens her eyes with her head still lowered and says with a somber tone, "So 2nd Child... Don't hate me too much after this, though I can't blame you if you do." She then looks up at the enemies with some seriousness brimming as a slightly devious smile appears. "Let's see how you bastards like it when I strip off Unit 02's humanity. There's no holding back anymore, so fingers crossed." Mari straightens her posture, peers at the ceiling with a firm look on her face while fixing her glasses into place with her right hand and then puts both hands down. "Invert controls! Back door code... The Beast!"

The lights in the entry plug immediately go out while only having red, small lights on. Unit 02 then suddenly starts to go through a strange change to its appearance *The same one from the Rebuild of Evangelion* as Mari's plugsuit starts to light up with the color green on her chest and on both hands where the orbs are located. As that happens, Mari starts to feel an excruciating pain go through her entire body, which causes her body to shake quite a bit as she lets out some slight, moaning sounds due to the pain.

Maya watches her screen in shock due to the multiple readings going through it and then yells out with a distraught voice, "The restrictors have been disengaged! The readings are off the chart!" She then looks at Ritsuko with worry overcoming her face. "We can't read the plug's interior!"

Ritsuko runs up next to Maya from her left with concern being noted and looks at Maya's screen. "That means it's pushing into negative range! The pilot is risking contamination!"

Maya makes a stressed out expression while gazing at her screen again. "We can't let her! Her life will be in danger if this continues!"

Misato watches both Ritsuko and Maya while grinding her teeth due to being upset about what they're saying. After that, Misato turns her attention back to the main screen while thinking, "But what the hell is going on?! I didn't know Unit 02 could do that?!" She then glances towards Gendo, who's located behind her, while concern takes over and thinks, "Did the Commander know about this?!"

Fuyutsuki leans towards Gendo and whispers with some concern showing, "I didn't know that there was anyone besides the two of us and SEELE who knew about Unit 02's Beast."

Gendo responds to Fuyutsuki's concern while still in the same pose as he maintains focus on the main screen displaying Unit 02 transforming. "Now that I think about it, she was hand-picked to be a back-up pilot for a reason. I guess her knowledge of Unit 02's hidden potential, even after being rebuilt to appear different, wouldn't change the fact that the Beast Mode is intact." He then becomes very serious while thinking, "I am quite amazed though. For her to be so willing to unleash the Beast of Unit 02 without any regard to her own safety..." Gendo pauses for a moment as a wicked smirk appears and then thinks, "She'll come in handy."

In the meantime, Asuka panics quite a bit while being in shock due to seeing Unit 02 go through a strange transformation and thinks with her jaw slightly opened, "What's happening to mama?! What's that Hündin doing to her?!"

As Unit 02 continues to change in appearance, Mari does her best to deal with the pain that's consuming her entire body while gritting her teeth. "Bare with it Unit 02! You can do this!" She leans a bit forward as some of her hair starts to stand up a little. "This isn't easy for me either!"

At that very moment, Unit 02's eyes light up while its transformation continues and then gets on all fours. Mari then lifts up her hands a bit close to her chest with her hands clenched as her head is lowered. "Just... A little... More...! Keep... Going...! Nothing ventured... Nothing gained...!"

Suddenly, Unit 02's mouth completely opens while making a loud roar. At that exact moment, Mari snaps her head to look up with both hands down, her eyes having changed to a bright green color and screams out with a smile while leaning forward, "There it is!"

Unit 02's umbilical cable disconnects and the five-minute timer starts on the right side screen while the red Eva quickly launches itself right after the timer started. With amazing speed, Unit 02 rushes towards the enemy Evas, but unexpectedly does a hand-stand flip with its right hand way before reaching them and sends itself soaring to the sky.

Dummy Eva 04 stands in front of Dummy Eva 05 while looking up at Unit 02 and deploys its A.T. Field in the attempt to block Unit 02. At the same time, Mari passionately yells with determination while Unit 02 crashes into Dummy Eva 04's A.T. Field and completely shatters it.

Afterwards, Unit 02 lands on top of Dummy Eva 04 and this causes the enemy to fall backwards onto the ground while being pinned down by the full weight of Unit 02's body. Mari then smiles while saying proudly, "That's not going to work anymore, dumb ass!"

Dummy Eva 05 suddenly appears in front of Unit 02 while expanding its A.T. Field to hit Unit 02 like it did last time. Mari then quickly looks up at Dummy Eva 05 and thrusts out her left hand forward, which Unit 02 imitates. It then breaks through the A.T. Field and pierces right through the enemy's chest. As a result, Dummy Eva 05 cringes in pain while leaning forward a bit as blood begins to exit from the wound inflicted on Dummy Eva 05. Seeing that causes Mari to smile with confidence brimming as her left arm is extended out. "That's what you get, you sneaky bastard!"

Shinji's surprised by Unit 02's performance while thinking, "Incredible! In that form, Unit 02 is in complete control of the battle!" He then turns his eyes to Asuka and sees that she's quite worried, which causes him to become a bit concern as he thinks, "Asuka looks so worried about her Eva. I wish there was something I could do for her." Shinji turns his attention back to the main screen with sadness taking over. Dummy Eva 04 then tries to reach for Unit 02's neck with both hands while still being pinned down.

Mari notices Dummy Eva 04's attempt and makes Unit 02's right knee thrust into Dummy Eva 04's neck. The force of the impact causes the neck to break and results in the enemy Eva to stop functioning. After that, Mari giggles a little as she sees Dummy Eva 04's motionless body and then peers at Dummy Eva 05 with a lot of enthusiasm emitting from her face. "Now it's your turn!"

After Mari's cry, Dummy Eva 05 tries to back away from Unit 02, but it can't due to Unit 02 holding onto it from the hole that was made by Unit 02's left hand. Mari's filled with curiosity while being a bit surprised by what the enemy just did. She then stands up straight, which makes Unit 02 straighten its posture, and tilts her head to the left as she maintains her grip on the enemy. "I can't believe you actually look like you're scared."

Mari briefly pauses to giggle and then arrogantly says, "I guess fear can be found in the most unlikely of things... But that won't save you." Unit 02 then pulls the enemy towards it while completely opening its mouth and bites the enemy's head completely off. This results in blood squirting out of the exit wound that Dummy Eva 05's head once was attached to.

Everyone in Central Dogma are all shocked at what they just saw transpired. Unit 02 then releases its hold on the enemy's head and it falls to the ground as the squirting blood rains upon Unit 02's body. After letting go of the head, Unit 02 removes its hand from inside the enemy's chest and puts its hand down. This results in Dummy Eva 05 falling to the ground as well while blood slowly stops squirting out. Unit 02 then suddenly turns off while almost reverting back to its normal form and the lights of the entry plug turn back on.

It's revealed at the exact moment of the lights turning on that Mari's eyes have returned to their light blue color. Also, the orbs of her plugsuit are no longer shining while she's still standing on the seat with a content smile on her face. "Mission complete." She then cocks her head back to gaze at the ceiling while asking, "What do you guys think? Not bad, huh?"

Asuka's voice suddenly comes through the intercom while sounding extremely upset. "Who the hell do you think you are?! How dare you do that to my Eva?!"

Mari makes an apologetic expression and places her right hand behind her head as her left eye is closed. "Oops. Sorry if I made you mad, but I had no choice."

Asuka continues to be upset. "Well sorry isn't going to cut it! No one pilots my Eva except me! And I'll be damned if you ever get in my Eva and do what you did again!"

Mari's image appears on the main screen for everyone in Central Dogma to see her while showing that she had put her hand down and opened her left eye with amusement being noted on her person. "Alright... I'll be sure to remember that."

Asuka grits her teeth while clearly being enraged with both hands tightly clenched while mumbling, "I bet..."

In the meantime, Touji's surprised at the appearance of Mari being displayed on the main screen and says with a moderately astounded tone, "Damn... She sure is hot."

Hikari overhears what Touji said and gives him an upset glare. "What was that, Suzuhara?!"

Touji looks at her with a panicked expression as he takes a step back away from her. "Uhhh, I didn't say anythin'!"

Hikari becomes even more upset as she takes a step towards him. "Liar! I heard what you said! You think she's hot?!"

Touji nervously smiles with his hands up in front of Hikari. "That doesn't mean that I like her or anythin'! So please chill out!"

Hikari yells out while still being upset, "I'll chill out after I slap some sense into you!"

Shinji watches Touji and Hikari argue for a moment with concern. He then focuses his gaze to the main screen, sees Mari's image with curiosity taking over and thinks, "So, she'll be joining us with fighting against SEELE." Shinji smiles while quietly stating to himself, "I wonder what kind of person she is."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

I know what all of you are probably thinking. I stole a huge part from the Rebuild of Evangelion. Well, I decided to almost imitate that scene from the movie because it was an awesome scene. What better way to show off Mari's capabilities. By the way, and this is just my opinion... Mari kicks ass! She's just plain amazing and I love the way she talks in the Rebuild movie, plus the way she acts. I decided to add her into the 2nd Season of Eva because she has a huge purpose in my story line, which will be revealed in later episodes. I just honestly think that she's more than qualified to be in my series. Just in case... I give huge thanks to Anno for creating Mari and for making her so amazing! I also give him credit for the scene I took some parts from and for any other scenes I will take from the movies. I hope that you all enjoyed this episode and look forward to the next one. By the way, "Hündin" isbitch in German. Thought you all would like to know that.

That's it. Talk to you all later


	7. Episode 7

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

This episode will be a little tough. I have a good idea of what this episode will be about, but like I almost always do, I'm going to be improvising until I'm happy with the episode. I really doubt that this episode will have action, but I'm certain it will have drama/romance and I'll do my best to entertain all of you. So enjoy while remembering that I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion and I will never selfishly say that I own it.

Episode 7: Awkward Love Triangle Followed By The Sudden Rejection

After defeating the two enemy Evas, Mari met up with everyone in Central Dogma. She was welcomed by everyone except Asuka due to her still being upset that Mari used her Eva and made it use its "Beast Mode", which was something that Asuka and the others had no knowledge of prior to Mari's usage of it. This issue is forgotten for now due to another issue that has been brought up, which involves Mari's housing situation. It has been decided that she'll join Misato and the others, although she has to stay in the living room since the only other available room has a lot of stuff in it. Mari sees no problem with this, but Asuka does. She doesn't like the fact that Mari will be living with them for obvious reasons. Although something she never considered to be possible arises a couple of days after Mari moves in and this would cause things to change. Right now, it's the morning and all the children are in their respective rooms while Misato and Kaji are in their room. The focus is on Shinji and Asuka's room due to Shinji being the first to wake up.

Shinji slowly opens his eyes with a tired look on his face while Asuka is facing away from him as she's still asleep. He then turns his head to look at the closet that's currently opened and reveals his clothing. Afterwards, he slowly sits up on the edge of the bed with his head lowered. Once Shinji gains some composure, he turns his head to the right to look at Asuka.

Ironically, Asuka randomly turns around at that moment and is now facing towards him while still sleeping. Shinji then smiles and thinks, "She looks even more beautiful when she's asleep. I'm so lucky to have her." He then closes his eyes while turning his head to face towards the bedroom's door. After doing that, he looks at the door and gets up from the bed while casually walking towards it. He then quietly exits the room and walks towards the kitchen. Once he's in the kitchen, he starts to prepare breakfast for everyone.

As Shinji gets the food ready, Mari's lying on the couch that's adjacent from the television with her entire body covered up by her blanket. She's then woken up by the noise that Shinji makes as he prepares the food. This results in her removing the blanket from her face while lying on her back as it's noted that Mari's hair isn't pinned and tied like usual. This is because she takes off her pins and unties her hair when she goes to sleep. So as a result, her hair is currently down and will always be like that when she goes to sleep and/or wakes up.

After moving the blanket away from her face, Mari reaches for her glasses with her left hand while they're on the floor next to the couch. She puts them on while still being quite tired and then notices that Shinji's in the kitchen. Mari then removes the blanket off her body and reveals that she's wearing a light pink tank top and light blue denim shorts. After completely removing the blanket, she slowly sits up on the couch while looking at Shinji with a light smile and thinks, "He seems to be the thoughtful type. This is the third time I've seen him cooking breakfast for everyone." Sadness then takes over Mari's expression as she stops smiling and thinks, "I wonder if he does it because he wants everyone's gratitude, or does he do it because he feels like he has to?" After thinking that, Mari suddenly lets out a light cough while still focused on Shinji.

Shinji barely hears Mari cough and turns his head to look at her with a hint of curiosity. At the same time he does that, he's stirring the food that's in the cooking pot while it's placed on the stove. He then smiles at her while saying with a layed back tone, "You're awake. I'm sorry if I woke you."

Mari yawns while putting her right hand over her mouth as she gets up. After gaining some composure, Mari puts her hand down while walking towards Shinji with a light smile. "It's alright." She stops right next to Shinji and checks out what he's cooking. She then notices a certain smell and looks towards Shinji while being a little surprised. In the meantime, Shinji doesn't take notice of Mari's sudden reaction due to him still looking at the food while stirring it with a content smile on his face. Mari then leans a bit towards Shinji with her eyes closed and takes a quick smell of him. She's then overcome with enjoyment while smiling widely.

Shinji finally notices what Mari's doing and is quite surprised. He then takes a step back while facing her and says with a very nervous tone, "Uhhh... W-What are you doing...? Are you... Smelling me?"

Mari opens her eyes while straightening her posture with her hands behind her back. After doing that, she looks at Shinji with pure happiness showing while saying with a slightly seductive tone, "You smell like LCL... And with the way you naturally smell, you make it smell REALLY good." As a result of what Mari said, Shinji turns a little red while being stunned. Mari then leans towards Shinji again, but a bit more closer this time, and smells him on the left side of his neck. After doing that, she backs away from him while closing her eyes and squeals out of joy with her head tilted back, "Oh my God, you smell so good!" She then looks at Shinji with a delighted smile.

Nervousness takes over Shinji's person while turning even more red and thinks, "W-What's up with her?! Is she getting turned on by the way I smell?! B-But how can she?!"

Mari gets extremely close to Shinji's face with her's and licks her lips in a seductive way. "I would SO enjoy waking up next to you every morning. The 2nd Child is really lucky to have you."

Shinji gets really nervous while trying to back away from Mari. "Well... I'm actually the lucky one..."

Mari stays close to Shinji while giving him a skeptical look as she's smiling. "Is that right? Why is that?"

Shinji continues to be nervous while trying to respond. At the same time, he keeps on trying to back away from her and then suddenly stops while saying, "Well... If it wasn't for Asuka... I would... Ummm..." Shinji then looks away from her with a hint of sorrow in his eyes. "I would still be alone..."

Mari lets out a soft giggle while slowly shaking her head and says with a sincere tone, "I wouldn't believe that."

Shinji's eyes widen from being surprised by what Mari said while looking at her. "R-Really?!"

Mari nods while smiling and says with enthusiasm, "Of course, because I'm definitely interested in you!" After hearing what Mari said, Shinji's completely stunned while his mouth is opened a little. Mari then makes her face get closer to Shinji's and says with a sincere tone, "With such a good smell, and from what I've noticed about you, I think any girl would be lucky to have you. Though, I will admit as a person you have some bad qualities. Based on what I heard about you while I was in America, you have the tendency of doing what you're told with the expectancy of being praised, which isn't too bad, but you need to do things for yourself more."

Shinji gets even more nervous due to Mari being so close to him as he's still a bit red. "Well... I've been... Working on that..." Suddenly, Pen-Pen comes out of Misato/Kaji's room as the door is opened enough for him to slip through while being quite tired since he just woke up. Pen-Pen then stops and turns to see Mari being really close to Shinji from next to the kitchen's table. A confused expression can be seen on Pen-Pen's face suddenly while letting out a soft squawking sound with its head slightly tilted to the right. After that, he slowly straightens his posture and turns back around to return to Misato/Kaji's room with neither Shinji nor Mari noticing him.

Meanwhile, Mari keeps her face at a really close distance from Shinji's face while happily saying in response to what Shinji said prior to Pen-Pen's appearance, "That's good. Now tell me... Do you like how close I'm getting to you? And be honest." She then giggles as Shinji turns even more red while reaching a level of nervousness that could possibly kill him. Mari then smiles and says with an innocent tone while pouting her lips a bit, "Oh come on. It's not that hard of a question. Unless you don't want to admit that you like it."

After saying that, Mari pauses for a moment while looking towards the left, which is the direction where the living room is located. She then looks back at Shinji while smiling and says in a seductive way, "Plus, I have bigger tits than Asuka, and everyone knows that guys prefer bigger."

Shinji's in complete shock after hearing that last part while starting to feel light-headed and is even breathing heavily. Mari then continues to say with a seductive tone while gently pressing her breasts against Shinji's chest, "I bet you would enjoy seeing me naked. You would even love to fondle my tits too, huh?" As result to Mari's last comment, Shinji turns pale and then suddenly passes out while falling to the floor. This surprises Mari as she's looking at Shinji and yells out, "Oh no! Shinji!"

Asuka quickly comes out of her room due to hearing Mari yell out Shinji's name. She then sees Shinji lying on the floor and yells out with a worried tone, "What happened?!"

Mari looks at Asuka with a distraught expression. "He just passed out!"

Asuka gasps a little while being quite shocked as she looks at Mari. She then looks at Shinji again while rushing to him and knees down next to him as she frantically shakes his body with both hands. "Wake up, Shinji! Are you okay?! What happened to you?!"

Mari smiles confidently while looking at Asuka and thinks to herself with her left hand placed on her hip, "I doubt Shinji will wake up any time soon. Even when he does, I don't think he would tell her what I was trying to do. After all, she would go ballistic, and from what I learned about Shinji, he always tries to avoid conflicts." She then giggles softly to herself while thinking, "But there will be a conflict no matter what. I was being honest about everything I said to him, after all."

After a little time goes by, everyone wakes up due to the commotion that Asuka was making while trying to wake up Shinji. When Misato and Kaji woke up and saw that Shinji had passed out, they decided to take him to the clinic to be checked on. This is due to them thinking that the reason he passed out had something to do with his mentality, although it was made obvious by Ritsuko when she checked him that it had nothing to do with that. She told everyone that Shinji passed out from hyperventilation and that he just needed to rest for a bit in the clinic, which is what he did. After he regains consciousness and was released from the clinic, he returned to the apartment and did one of the most foolish things a guy can do. He told Asuka what had happened between him and Mari. This obviously caused Asuka to become consumed with anger and she goes to confront Mari, who's currently watching television on her couch. Mari's accompanied by Rei and Kensuke, who are sitting on the other couch. Touji and Hikari are in their room while Kaji has gone out again to search for information on SEELE's whereabouts and Misato is doing paperwork in her room with Pen-Pen relaxing on her bed.

Asuka marches out of her room, which is where Shinji had told her about what happened with Mari, while being enraged. After reaching the living room, Asuka walks towards Mari while thinking, "That bitch is SO going to pay!"

Shinji chases after her with worry brimming as he tries to plead with her. "Please let it go, Asuka! It isn't that big of a deal!"

Asuka stops right next to Mari's couch with irritation rising from within. She then turns around to face Shinji with her hands clenched while leaning towards him and yells, "What was that?! You don't think it's a big deal that she came on to you?!"

Kensuke hears what Asuka just said and turns his head to the right to look at Shinji while being very surprised. "What was that?! Mari actually came onto you, Shinji?! I can't believe it!"

Rei looks at them while having a moderately surprised expression. She then looks at Mari with a serious stare while thinking to herself, "But why would Makinami do such a thing, when she doesn't even know, Ikari. She also already knows that Soryu and Ikari are together." Rei then becomes quite upset as she glares at Mari a little.

Mari's currently looking at Asuka and Shinji with a slight smile on her face while thinking, "I guess I was wrong about Shinji not telling her."

Shinji makes an attempt to calm Asuka down, but he can see from her expression that it won't work. As a result, he gives up while lowering his head with a hopeless demeanor being displayed. "I'm sorry..."

Asuka gets very upset and then yells, "Why are you apologizing?! You didn't do anything!" She then turns around to look directly at Mari and points at her with her left hand. "You're the bitch who tried to hit on MY boyfriend!"

Mari giggles while looking at Asuka. She then gets up from her couch and stands in front of Asuka while facing her. "Just because he's your boyfriend, doesn't mean that he can't change his mind and go for a more attractive girl like myself."

Asuka gets even more upset while gritting her teeth as she puts her left hand down. She then takes a step towards Mari while clenching her hands into fists again. "What was that?! I dare you to say that again!"

Mari giggles again while shrugging as she has her eyes closed and has her head turned away from Asuka. "I don't need to repeat myself just because you didn't comprehend what I said." After saying that, Mari looks at Asuka out of the corner of her eyes. "Also, I'll tell you the other benefits that Shinji will get from being with me." She then turns her head to look directly at Asuka with a confident smile.

Asuka continues to be upset and yells, "Really?! And what benefits could he get from you that he can't get from me?!"

Mari giggles once again while looking at Shinji with a smile. "Well first off; he'll have a girl with bigger tits." She then looks at Asuka again. "I think that's one of the most important benefits that he'll get from me." Asuka then turns bright red while still being very upset and grits her teeth again. Mari continues to smile while saying with a bit of arrogance, "Let's admit it. Your tits come up short to mine, and I bet Shinji would just love to fondle them."

Kensuke randomly yells out with a smile, "Go for it, Shinji!"

Rei looks at Kensule with a displeased expression and firmly says, "Kensuke! Don't say such a thing! We all know very well what Asuka feels for Shinji is real. Makinami couldn't possibly feel that way about him so quickly!"

Shinji looks at Rei with surprise brimming as he thinks to himself, "That's the first time I've ever heard Rei call Asuka by her name. And she rarely calls me by my name either."

Asuka smiles while looking at Rei and says proudly, "You said it, Rei!" She then points at Mari with her right hand while still looking at Rei. "There's no way in hell that she could ever have the same feelings I have for Shinji!" After saying that, Asuka looks at Mari while putting her hand down as confidence is being displayed.

Rei's a bit surprised as she looks at Asuka and thinks to herself, "This is the first time she called me by my name." She then smiles while still looking at Asuka and thinks, "I guess we really are becoming friends."

Mari tries not to laugh while still smiling as she's looking at Asuka. "Is that so? Well, I will admit that my feelings for Shinji are pretty shallow. The only things I know about him is what I've heard, but as long as he has that great smell, I feel like I could never get over this feeling that's inside me."

Asuka glares at Mari with an irritated look. "Smell? What the hell are you talking about?"

Mari sighs while closing her eyes with her head lowered. "Not many people understand my taste in guys." She then slowly opens her eyes while having a sincere expression. "I normally like a guy based on his scent because as long as I know I can enjoy waking up next to him then that's all I need." After saying that, Mari looks up at Asuka with a smile. "That's my definition of love."

As a result to what Mari just said, Asuka's in complete surprise while being unable to utter a response as she finally unclenched her hands. Suddenly, Touji and Hikari both come out of their room and are laughing while looking at each other. They then both realize that there's an issue going on in the living room and stop right next to Shinji.

Hikari stands to the right of Touji while he's on Shinji's right. Touji then whispers to Shinji while maintaining his focus on Asuka and Mari's confrontation. "What's going on?"

Shinji glances at Touji with sadness in his eyes. "Something really complicated." He then looks back at Mari and Asuka while thinking, "But even that's an understatement."

Asuka becomes very serious while glaring at Mari and says with a commanding tone, "Listen up, Mari! You better get rid of any of those thoughts of wanting Shinji. As long as I'm here, that will never happen!"

After hearing what Asuka said, both Touji and Hikari look at each other while being shocked by what they heard. They then both turn their attention back to Asuka and Mari. At the same time, Mari giggles a little while looking away from Asuka. "You can't tell me what to do about this one." She then looks at Asuka and says with confidence, "I listen to you about Unit 02 because that's your Eva, but when it comes to Shinji, he doesn't belong to you." Mari looks at Shinji with a smile. "Right now, you're fortunate enough to have him out of your current common feelings that you two share, but there will be a time that Shinji might want to be with someone else because people DO fall out of love." She then turns her attention back to Asuka. "And I'll make sure that person will be me. My interest in Shinji is considerately large and I don't plan on giving up on the feelings that reside in me."

Asuka's about to retaliate to what Mari just said with anger rising, but she's interrupted by Misato's appearance. Misato stands next to Hikari's right with seriousness being displayed as she says with a commanding tone, "That's enough! You guys shouldn't spend your free time arguing when you all have a synchronization test tomorrow!"

Due to Misato's outburst, the children quickly look at her and nod while being quite serious. Misato maintains her seriousness as she then looks at Mari. "I just received word that your Eva has arrived. So for the next time SEELE attacks, you'll pilot it."

Mari smiles as she nods at Misato while being very happy. "I wouldn't want it any other way. Besides, Asuka would probably kill me if I even go near her Eva."

Asuka looks at her with irritation returning and yells, "You're damn right I would kill you! I should kill you right now!"

Misato looks at Asuka and says with a firm tone, "Calm down, Asuka!" She then looks at everyone and says with a calm tone, "I think it would be best that everyone goes to their respective rooms." She then looks at Hikari with curiosity. "Do you mind if you cook dinner by yourself? I can't let Shinji be out here to help you because knowing Asuka, she will complain, and Mari might try something."

Hikari smiles while looking at Misato. "I don't mind at all."

Misato smiles back at Hikari. "Good." She then looks at the others with seriousness again. "Then everyone else, go to your room until it's time to eat."

All the children except Hikari and Mari, which is because her room is the living room, do as they are told and head to their respective rooms. Asuka's still upset and doesn't even talk to Shinji since he didn't completely understand why she was upset in the first place. A little time goes by and dinner is prepared. Everyone except Kaji, who won't be returning for a couple of days, is eating while there is a lot of tension. This is even more amplified due to Mari choosing to sit to the right of Shinji while Asuka's on his left. Asuka's currently staring at Mari while eating so that she can be sure that Mari doesn't try anything. Mari on the other hand, doesn't even care that Asuka's watching her because she's too busy with paying attention to Shinji as she eats while making an expression of admiration.

Misato and the other children don't know what to do about this, so they decide not to get involved and mind their own business. After everyone finishes eating, they go to bed since they have to look forward to their synchronization test. The day ends and the next day quickly arrives. At this moment, the children are getting ready in the locker rooms while Misato is working with Central Dogma's personnel. Right now, the focus is on the girls' locker room.

Mari puts on her greenish/brown plugsuit with a slightly annoyed expression as she pressed the button to fasten the plugsuit. "Damn it! I hate that I have to wear this one just because it's specifically made to work with Unit 05!" She then places both her hands on top of her breast while pouting and looking at them with a bit of sadness being displayed. "The pink one fits a lot better... This really sucks."

Asuka gives Mari an irritated look while already having her plugsuit on as her right hand is on her hip. "Quit your whining!" She then mocks Mari while rolling her eyes, "My plugsuit's too tight!" Afterwards, Asuka looks at Mari with a smart-ass smile. "Not so good having big tits now, huh?"

Mari looks at Asuka with annoyance increasing as she puts her hands down and then realizes something for a moment with her gaze upward. After that, Mari suddenly starts laughing while closing her eyes with her head lowered. She's also holding onto her stomach with her left while pointing at Asuka with her right hand. "That means you like having smaller tits!" She then continues to laugh.

Asuka turns bright red while putting her hand down. She then glares at Mari while leaning towards her as she yells out in anger, "My breasts aren't that much smaller! So stop making it seem like they are!"

Mari makes an arrogant expression while lifting her head up to look at Asuka. She then stands in a right sideways position and tilts her head to the right while looking at Asuka out of the corner of her eyes. "What size are they then?"

Asuka turns a bit red due to Mari's question and then gives her a serious glare. "They're between 34 and 36C!"

Mari tilts her head back while closing her eyes and laughs proudly. "Mine are 38C!" She then looks at Asuka while smiling. "And they can even fit perfectly into a size 34D." After saying that, Mari giggles lightly.

Asuka turns a bit more red while getting pissed off. "So what?! They aren't that much bigger! That was my point!"

Mari responds in a taunting way with her right index finger lifted up next to her face. "But. They. Are. Still. Bigger!" She then giggles again.

Asuka grits her teeth while being annoyed at Mari's taunting. She then suddenly closes her eyes while trying to calm down. Afterwards, Asuka starts to walk towards the exit, which is right behind Mari, as she opens her eyes and says with a composed tone, "Forget it. I'm tired of arguing with you." After saying that, Asuka walks pass Mari and out the exit that had automatically opened when she pressed a button on the wall. At the same time, Hikari sees Asuka leave with concern brimming as she just finished putting on her plugsuit. She then quickly follows Asuka and tries to catch up to her. After that, Rei stares at Mari with an emotionless expression as she fastens her plugsuit to her body,

Mari's currently looking at the exit with her hands behind her back while thinking to herself as she's smiling, "It looks like I win." She then turns her attention to Rei and sees her expression. Due to that, Mari becomes a bit concerned while asking, "What's with that look?" Rei then calms her expression and closes her eyes with her head slightly lowered while walking towards Mari. She then opens her eyes to look at Mari while stopping right in front of her and suddenly tries to smack Mari in the face with her right hand. Unfortunately for Rei, Mari swiftly catches it with her left hand and then smiles with curiosity being displayed. "What was that for?"

Rei responds with a cold tone while becoming very serious. "You're interfering in Shinji and Asuka's relationship. I want you to stop."

Mari continues smiling while slanting her head to the left a little. "If they truly love each other, then I shouldn't be able to get in the way of that." She then giggles while straightening her head's posture. "But that won t keep me from expressing my feelings for Shinji."

"But you only like him for his smell. How could you possibly have any real feelings for him?" Rei states with a criticizing tone.

Mari closes her eyes while shaking her head. "If you think I only have feelings for him because of his smell then you're wrong." She opens her eyes to look at Rei again. "He's also a really good pilot, he's really good at cooking and he's a very nice guy. The only problems with him are that he's a bit spineless, he isn't that confident, and he still doesn't completely understand what he's fighting for."

Rei glares at Mari and says with confidence, "He will with the help of Asuka."

Mari suddenly gives Rei an emotionless look while saying, "Why does it have to be her? They aren't even right for each other."

Rei's momentarily surprised by what Mari just said and then responds while being a bit confused. "What do you mean?"

Mari smiles while being quite confident. "I can tell that they're together mostly to help fix each other. They may feel like they're in love, but what happens when they find out that there is someone they can connect with better?" As a result, Rei continues to be confused while not completely understanding what Mari means by what she just said. Mari then says with confidence, "That's when they will find out that their love is only temporary like a lot of other people's love. They may try to fight it, but there's a limit to how much a person can fight their true feelings."

Seriousness takes over as Rei stares at Mari with intensity. "That will never happen. I know that they truly do love each other and always will."

Mari gives out a short giggle while turning around to face the exit. "We'll see." She then walks towards and out the door.

Rei continues to be serious as she watched Mari walk out. She then walks towards and out the door as well while thinking, "I know they will."

With that conversation over, soon enough, all the pilots are in their respective entry plugs and the synchronization test begins. At first everything looks alright, but then a problem appears when they realize that Touji's having a hard time synchronizing with Unit 03's entry plug.

Maya's currently looking at her screen while being worried about what's being displayed on her screen. "There's something seriously wrong! Touji's synchronization is barely reaching 20%!"

Misato looks at her with concern. "But why?! Touji's sync ratio was over 50% during the first fight!"

Maya looks towards Ritsuko from her left while still worried. "Dr. Akagi! Look at this!"

Ritsuko looks at Maya with curiosity arising. She then walks up to Maya and leans towards her screen to see what's going on. As she reads the information, her eyes widen from surprise while straightening her posture. "His sync ratio has stopped. It didn't even pass 20%."

Misato walks up to Ritsuko's left while looking at Maya's screen in disbelief. "Are you serious?!" She then looks at Ritsuko. "What's going on?!"

Ritsuko looks at Misato while shrugging slightly. "I haven't the slightest idea. There's no apparent reason for the 4th Child to be unable to synchronize."

Misato looks at Maya while having a serious expression. "Restart the test for Touji." Maya nods in response to Misato's order and turns to look at her screen again while beginning to type. Misato then looks up at the main screen that displays the pilot's entry plugs and says with a commanding tone, "Touji! We're restarting the test again for you! So just concentrate like you always do, alright?!"

Touji has his eyes closed with determination showing on his person as he nods with his head lowered. "Gotcha!" As the test restarts, he keeps on trying to synchronize, but to no avail. This causes him to become very irritated as he says to himself. "What's going on?! I should be able to do this! Why is this stupid thing givin' me a hard time?!"

Suddenly, a menacing voice comes out of nowhere and responds to Touji's question with an agitated tone. "Because you're not the one!"

Touji gets startled due to the menacing voice's sudden response as he quickly opens his eyes and looks up at the ceiling. "What the hell was that?!"

Misato's voice comes through the intercom as she has a concerned tone. "What's wrong, Touji?!"

Touji looks around in a frantic manner for a moment. He then stops and slowly looks down at the floor while trying to calm himself down. "It's nothing... I just thought I heard something."

Hikari's voice comes through a separate intercom while sounding a bit worried. "Are you sure you're alright, Suzuhara?"

Touji nods to himself while taking deep breaths to calm himself down more. "I'm sure, Hikari. Don't ya worry bout' me, alright?"

Hikari responds while still sounding worried. "Alright, Suzuhara. If you say so then I believe you."

Misato adds with a calm tone. "In that case, keep trying to synchronize."

Touji keeps breathing in deeply with his head lowered and closes his eyes while trying to concentrate again. "Alright." He keeps trying to concentrate for a while, but still can't manage to synchronize as he thinks to himself, "Damn it! Why does it feel like no matter how hard I try, I just can't get into it?!"

The menacing voice responds again while sounding a bit irritated. "Because you could never bring out my full potential! You're a failure as a pilot! You could never protect anyone!" The voice then laughs in a maniacal manner.

Touji becomes upset after hearing those words and yells out while keeping his eyes closed. "That's not true! I promised Hikari that I would protect her!"

Misato's voice comes through the intercom again and says with a worried tone, "What are you talking about, Touji?!"

The menacing voice continues laughing in a maniacal manner. "You have to be joking! You're too weak! I will never accept you ever again!"

Suddenly, Unit 03's entry plug turns off. This causes Touji to open his eyes while making a surprised expression as he's looking upward. "What just happened?!"

Maya yells out in horror while looking at her screen, "I can't believe this! Unit 03's entry plug just went off and refuses to reactivate!"

Misato looks at Maya with disbelief being noted. "How's that possible?!"

Ritsuko thinks to herself while looking at Maya with a hint of concern, "This is just like when Unit 01 rejected both Rei and the Dummy Plug System. Could it be that Unit 03 is doing the same thing?" She then shakes her head while closing her eyes. After that, she looks up at the main screen with seriousness taking over while thinking, "That's impossible. Unit 03 isn't supposed to have a soul."

Touji's now curled up into a ball while looking at the controls. He's currently in shock as he mumbles to himself, "What the hell was that voice?! And what did he mean by he would never accept me and that I can never protect anyone?!" He then closes his eyes while gritting his teeth for a moment and screams out, "That can't be true!"

From Hikari's entry plug, she hears Touji scream through the intercom. This causes her to make a worried expression while being quite sad as she thinks to herself, "Oh, Suzuhara..."

The scene then suddenly changes and focuses on SEELE's top five members. They are currently sitting at their table while in a dark room that only has a light shinning down on the table. *Side Note: They're still sitting in the same spots as usual*

Keel looks at the other members with a serious demeanor as his right arm's resting on the table. "We will launch our next attack soon."

SEELE # 3 nods in agreement while looking at Keel with an irritated expression. "We should finally stop holding back though. It was annoying seeing both of our Evas be destroyed by one of NERV's Evas."

SEELE # 2 gives Keel a serious look while firmly adding, "It was even more annoying that Unit 02 revealed its 'Beast Mode'. That could be a real problem if NERV uses it more often. In which case, we will have to stop holding back."

Keel shakes his head for a brief moment while looking at SEELE # 2 and # 3. "We can't diverge from the plan. But do not worry, we will be picking things up soon."

SEELE # 5's looks at Keel with a bit of concern. "I hope you're right. We don't need any more unnecessary losses."

Keel responds with a stern tone. "Don't be ridiculous! Everything that's happened so far has been fitting quite well with our plan!"

SEELE # 4 responds to what Keel said while having a skeptical expression. "If you say so, but I still feel uneasy."

Keel looks at SEELE # 4 while maintaining his serious demeanor. "You shouldn't! As long as the plan is still reachable, then we have nothing to worry about!"

SEELE # 2 keeps looking at Keel. "Yes, but let's hope that things don't turn out like last time. We thought we had Tabris under our complete control, but he ended up betraying us."

SEELE # 4 looks at SEELE # 2 for a moment and nods. He then turns his attention back towards Keel. "And let's not forget the incident with the 2nd Branch."

Keel gets a bit irritated while looking at all of them and yells out, "I already handled that! So ignore what happened with the 2nd Branch! I have everything under control!" He then makes a fierce expression while stating, "I will not be denied this time!"

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

I don't think this episode was that bad. As a lot of you can tell, I made this episode quite perverted, but I had to because this is my way of giving you all fan service. *Laughs* I enjoyed writing this episode quite a bit and some of you must be wondering what's going on with Touji and Unit 03. Sadly, you guys are going to have to be quite patient until I reveal the whole deal with that. Although some of you most likely already have figured out what's happening, but only I know where I'm going with this. So just be patient and hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode just as much as I did.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	8. Episode 8

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

I'm doing a really good job with how long it takes me to finish my episodes. When I wrote the 2nd Branch Story, it took me over two years to finish it and it was only fifteen episodes long while some were quite shorter than the others. With Forever Intertwined, I'm already at episode 8 and I'm doing a pretty good job with each episode. This is a huge improvement for me since I've made it this far in only three weeks. I just hope that nothing keeps me from finishing this and I still hope that everyone enjoys my story. Now let's get started and once again, for good measure, I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion. This story is just a Fan Fiction that I just really wanted to write. *Smiles*

Episode 8: Offer Accepted From A Mysterious Child

Although the issue with Touji's rejection wasn't resolved, it was decided to be pushed aside for the time being. Everyone hopes that the issue will not arise again when they have to fight against enemy Evas. Many days then go by and the day of the 9th grade entrance exam soon arrives. Mari also participates in taking the test so that all the children can have the possibility of going into the next grade together. Even though, she doesn't really need to since she's technically already qualified to enter the 9th grade. The test is about five hours long and for Touji, who's been freaking out the most about the exam, thinks that this is torture. Once they finish taking the exam, they will have to wait a few days before they find out if they passed or not. This is even worse torture for Touji since he believes that he failed while still being bothered by his failed sync test as Hikari tries to make him feel better, but it seems a bit hopeless.

Meanwhile, this isn't the only issue that occurs in the apartment since Mari's interest in Shinji continues. This results in Asuka getting into multiple arguments with Mari about how she tries to flirt with Shinji as it seems like Mari is doing everything she can to steal Shinji away from her. Shinji tries to reassure Asuka that it won't ever happen, but she still feels like she can't drop her guard around Mari. The day continues to go on until its 11:00 PM while NERV's personnel are working hard, which includes Misato since she has to work until very late. The scene's focus is now on Gendo and Fuyutsuki, who are in Gendo's office. Gendo's phone then suddenly starts to ring while being attached to his desk as it's on Gendo's right-hand side.

Gendo's currently in his usual pose as he looks at the phone out of the corner of his eyes. After that, he slowly moves his right hand to reach for the phone while putting his left hand down on top of his desk. He answers the phone while placing it on his right ear as he's looking in front of himself. "Ikari."

A boy's voice responds with a smart-ass tone. "Guess who?" He then chuckles a little.

Gendo's eyes widen a little though this reaction can't be seen by Fuyutsuki due to him wearing his glasses. He then looks up at the ceiling while a hint of surprise being shown on his person. "Is this...?"

The boy cuts him off with a slightly urgent tone. "Don't say it! Because knowing you, Fuyutsuki should be next to you, right?!

In response to what the boy said, Gendo calmly glances at Fuyutsuki and sees that he's looking at him. Fuyutsuki's currently standing on Gendo's right with seriousness notably being displayed. Gendo then looks down at his desk and says with a composed tone, "It's been a long time."

The boy chuckles a little and then says with a calm tone, "Well since the last time we spoke, you can say that some time has passed. But enough with the small talk. There's something I want to know."

Gendo looks up ahead of himself with a serious expression taking over. "What would that be?"

After having heard Gendo's question, the boy's revealed to be in a dark room, sitting on top of a bed with his legs crossed as his right hand is placed on the bed for leverage. The boy's face can't be seen due to the darkness of the room while the only light that can be seen in the room is from a laptop that's on a desk, which the desk is located right next to the boy's bed. The laptop is currently facing the opposite direction from the boy as he's holding his cellular up to his left ear with the hand that's not placed on the bed while calmly smiling. "The offer you once gave me... Can I accept it now?" The boy pauses for a moment and tilts his head to the right. "Or is it too late?"

As a result of the boy's sudden question, Gendo's very surprised as his eyes widen again. Fuyutsuki notices Gendo's surprise while becoming a bit concerned and leans towards him. "Ikari?"

Gendo instantly turns his head away from Fuyutsuki while lifting up his left hand to signal Fuyutsuki to give him a moment as skepticism can be noted on Gendo's person. "The offer I made to you was roughly half a year ago. It took you this long to decide that you want to accept it?"

The boy chuckles while lying down on his bed with the bottom part of his feet placed on the bed. Afterwards, he puts his right hand behind his head and calmly responds to Gendo's question. "I needed time to think. Anyway, a lot of intense things had happened to me. So you can't expect me to be quick to call you. Anyway, as they say, 'Better late than never'." He then smiles with a slight hint of arrogance.

Gendo closes his eyes while pausing for a moment as he puts his left hand down to rest on the desk again. He then turns his head to look ahead of himself again and unintentionally lets out a content smile. "Alright. So you accept, correct?"

Fuyutsuki makes a surprised expression as he maintains his focus on Gendo and thinks, "He's actually smiling?! I've rarely ever seen him smile since Yui died!"

The boy states with a bit of cockiness while still smiling. "Well... There are some stipulations to me agreeing to your offer."

Gendo's smile quickly disappears as concern dwells withing him a little. "What would be the stipulations?"

The boy randomly yawns a little bit with the cellular moved away from him. He then regains his composure after wiping the water from his eyes created from him yawning with his left hand while maintaining his hold on the cellular. Afterwards, he sits up on the bed with his right leg curled up quite a bit while his left leg is folded underneath his right leg as his right arm is resting on it. The boy then says with a serious tone, "You can't tell anyone who I really am."

Gendo responds with a stern tone. "Why would you want that? Also, don't you think there will be an issue when you meet the others concerning your appearance?"

The boy tilts his head slightly towards the right while resting his head on top of his right arm with his eyes focused down on the bed. "Not really. I'll handle the whole thing with them. Just as long as you back me up." He then says with an unwavering tone, "So promise me that you won't tell anyone. Not even Fuyutsuki."

Gendo pauses for a moment due to the stipulation that had just been placed while turning his gaze towards the left. He then returns his attention back in front of himself and responds with a serious tone. "I promise."

The boy smiles with content. "Good. Now there will be a bit of an issue with my transportation to Japan." After saying that, the boy becomes quite curious as he asks with a hint of concern, "By the way, which Eva will I be piloting?"

Gendo looks up towards the ceiling as he states, "I had received word that there was an issue with one of the pilots when he tried to synchronize with his Eva. If this continues, then that would be the one."

Fuyutsuki's surprised once again as he straightens his posture while thinking, "Why did he just mention the 4th Child and Unit 03...?!" Seriousness then returns while Fuyutsuki thinks, "Who could he possibly be talking to?"

The boy continues to smile as he nods to himself. "That sounds good. Now what about my transportation? Right now, I'm in America."

Gendo looks ahead of him while methodically tapping his fingers against his desk. "I will contact you about that. Most likely they will only take you halfway through. That means I will have to send someone to get you."

The boy chuckles and happily says, "That's fine by me. It was nice talking to you again, I guess. Try to have the arrangements ready as soon as possible. That way I can join without having to wait too long."

Gendo sharply nods while still focusing at the front part of his office. "Alright."

The boy quickly hangs up his cellular after hearing Gendo's response with a calm demeanor being displayed. He then puts his cellular down on the bed while lying back down in a spread out position with his left hand on top of the upper-half of his face to cover it. "Now's the perfect time to see both of them. I'm actually looking forward to it." With that said, the boy lets out one final chuckle while being quite excited.

Gendo hangs up the phone on his end while giving it a serious look. He then turns his gaze up at Fuyutsuki as he gets back into his usual pose and asks with no real emotion presented, "Something on your mind?"

Fuyutsuki firmly nods at him in response and says, "Who was that?"

Gendo smirks, but it isn't seen by Fuyutsuki due to his hands being in front of his mouth, and responds with an indifferent tone. "Our new pilot."

Fuyutsuki leans a bit towards Gendo again with astonishment. "A new pilot?!"

Gendo calmly nods at him with seriousness being displayed again. "That's correct."

Fuyutsuki makes a tensed expression while being quite concerned. "Who is it...?"

Gendo turns his head towards the left to look away from Fuyutsuki. "You'll see soon enough."

With that said, the scene ends and a few days go by. The children find out that they all passed their exams, which is a huge relief especially for Touji. They also find out that school starts next week, and in a way, they are excited because they will start to have more of a normal life again. During the course of the pass few days, Kaji had returned and had confirmed that SEELE isn't located neither in Africa nor Australia. His next search will be in the Americas, which he'll be starting with South America. Until then, he'll be spending some time with Misato and the children, but his timing could have been a bit better because the following day after he returned, SEELE launched their next attack.

It's now 5:47 PM as it has been entirely confirmed that there are three enemy Evas. They're in the mountain region while being attacked by NERV's defense system, and the JSSDF are even helping out this time. Each one of the enemy Evas have a few distinctive qualities and appearances that allows them to be told apart while they're all the same color, which is grey with purple stripes on their limbs. *I will give more of a description of them when they are introduced separately*

While the enemies are occupied, the children get ready and now they are in their Evas as they wait patiently to be launched. But before launching them, Misato decides to have them do a quick synchronization test with their Evas due to what had happen with Touji the other day. It's then revealed that the worst possible situation has occurred.

Misato watches the individual screens that shows the children's sync ratio on the main screen with seriousness brimming. As she does this, her arms are crossed while her focus sets on Touji's sync ratio, She then makes an irritated expression while shouting, "Damn it! This is what I was worried about!"

Kaji stands on Misato's right with concern showing as he's looking at Touji's status screen. "So, this is what you meant. He's definitely having a hard time synchronizing."

Misato looks at Kaji with sadness in her eyes and nods. "I was hoping that it was just a one time thing, but it looks like there's something seriously wrong. Unfortunately, we don't even know if it's the Eva or the pilot."

Ritsuko walks up to the two of them from Misato's left while having a serious expression. "Well, we don't have the time to figure this out. Our weapons and the JSSDF won't last much longer."

Misato looks at Ritsuko for a moment and nods. She then looks towards the main screen that still displays the children's statuses and yells out with a stern tone, "Launch all Evas except Unit 03!"

Touji's voice suddenly comes through the intercom while sounding quite upset. "But Misato! I can do it! Just give me a chance!"

Misato's image appears on Touji's right side screen and says with a hint of sadness returning, "I'm sorry, Touji, but you can't synchronize with Unit 03. I can't be sending you out there in the hope that you will be able to do it when you're in a dangerous situation. I really am sorry." Misato's image then disappears.

Touji gazes at where Misato's image was while being stunned momentarily. Irritation then consumes him while he grits his teeth and looks downward. "Why doesn't it listen to me?! If this keeps up, I won't be able to help!"

After Touji's cry, Misato continues to be sad as she looks at the main screen and sees all the Evas except Unit 03 be launched. Kaji then wraps his left arm around Misato while looking at her with a sympathetic expression. "I know it's hard, but you did the right thing. If he couldn't synchronize with his Eva, then he would have been in danger."

Misato nods while still looking at the main screen, which now displays the mountain area that the Evas had been sent to. "I know, Kaji. But the worst thing is that Touji's going to feel that he's useless and I know how terrible that feels."

Kaji nods at Misato with sadness starting to dwell within him and then turns his gaze to the main screen while saying softly, "You're right."

With those words from Kaji, the children's Evas arrive while surrounding the enemy Evas in a form of a triangle due to them being spread out in three groups of two. Shinji and Asuka are one, which they are at the top of the triangle. Kensuke and Rei are in the bottom right while Mari and Hikari are in the bottom left. *Side Note: I forgot to mention this, Mari's Unit 05 looks like the same one from the Rebuild of Evangelion, so to get a really good image of what it looks like, then watch the movie -Laughs-* At the moment the children had arrived, each enemy Eva face towards a different direction to look at a pair of Evas.

Dummy Eva 06 looks directly at Unit 01 and Unit 02 while holding a black sword in each hand. This Eva has a skull-like head while having white long, spikey hair that covers most of its back as its mouth is opened. It stands on two legs, which all three of the enemies do, and it has only two eyes as they are completely black. Asuka then tightens her grip on her controls as she stares at Dummy Eva 06 with seriousness brimming. "This time, I'll end it quicker than last time." She then glances slightly towards her right to look at Unit 05 as she thinks to herself while making an arrogant smile. "I'll show you the right way to use my Eva."

Shinji's looking towards his right to look at Unit 02 and thinks to himself with some concern lingering. "I wonder if Asuka's focused on the enemy, or if she's still worrying about the whole thing with Mari?" He closes his eyes as he sighs with his head lowered as he says to himself, "We'll see, I guess."

Mari has her Eva stand on the left side of Hikari's Eva as She's looking towards Unit 01 with a depressed expression while her face can't really be seen due to the helmet that she wears to operate Unit 05. "Why is it that I couldn't be paired up with Shinji?"

Hikari's image appears on Mari's right side screen as she's a bit nervous while answering Mari's question. "It could be because they have been working together for a long time. They once had to synchronize with each other to defeat an angel that could split in two."

Mari turns her attention towards Hikari with some confusion taking over. "I really don't see what that has to do with it." She then smiles while saying confidently, "I bet I could synchronize quite well with Shinji if I was given the chance." She then giggles a little.

Kensuke listens to Mari and Hikari's conversation with sympathy being displayed while thinking, "I feel bad for Shinji in a way. With all the fighting between Asuka and Mari, I can't imagine that he will ever have any peace." He then chuckles and thinks, "Although, he's one lucky guy to have two girls fight over him." Afterwards, Kensuke looks at Unit 00, which is on his right, and smiles while thinking, "But... I'm very happy with my current relationship with Rei, so I have no complaints."

Rei's voice suddenly comes though the intercom while yelling out of urgency and desperation, "It's coming!"

As a result of Rei's outburst, Kensuke turns his attention to look ahead of him with concern in his eyes. He then sees that the enemy Eva is heading straight towards him. Dummy Eva 08 runs up to Unit 04 as its head appears to look like it has a helmet on it that resembles a motorcycle helmet. This doesn't allow anyone to see the upper part of its face as its mouth is open while it holds a grey chainsaw in each hand. It then swings the chainsaw that's in its right hand in a downward diagonal angle while making a grunting sound.

Kensuke's unable to deploy its A.T. Field fast enough, so out of reaction, he pulls Unit 04 backwards while its chest plate gets grazed a little bit. Rei then makes Unit 00 pull out its Prog Knives from its pylons and tries to strike Dummy Eva 08 with both of them in a thrusting motion.

In response, Dummy Eva 08's A.T. Field effortlessly blocks the attack and then it diagonally swings its left chainsaw upward in a back-hand motion while still facing towards Unit 04. Rei then quickly deploys Unit 00's A.T. Field to block the chainsaw, but it's shattered. Then, both upper halves of Unit 00's arms are sliced off due to Rei not being able to retract the arms back in time. This causes Rei to feel an extreme amount of pain while screaming with her head tilted slightly back as she had let go of the controls.

Shinji watches Unit 00 lose its arms with worry being notable on his person as he yells out, "Rei!" After that, Shinji makes Unit 01 take a step forward with the thought of going to Rei's aid. Unit 01 is then suddenly stopped by Unit 02 grabbing onto its right shoulder with its left hand. This causes Shinji to look at Unit 02 with a surprised expression. "Why are you stopping me, Asuka?!"

Asuka yells out in panic while ignoring Shinji's question, "Watch out, Shinji!" She then quickly makes Unit 02 pull Unit 01 towards it.

Shinji's surprised by Asuka's outburst as Unit 01 goes towards Unit 02. At that exact moment, he hears a loud impact from right next to him. Shinji then turns his attention to look towards his left and sees that Unit 01 just barely dodged both of Dummy Eva 06's swords. The swords have been stabbed into the ground while Dummy Eva 06 is holding them upside down. This is due to Dummy Eva 06 having attempted to slice Unit 01, but had missed and struck the ground instead. This caused the ground to crack quite a bit due to the collision of both the swords and the enemy Eva. Afterwards, Dummy Eva 06 glares at Unit 01 with intensity and this results in Shinji getting startled a little while trying to make Unit 01 back away.

Unit 02 steps right in front of Unit 01 while crouching down a little with composure bent forward slightly. After that, Asuka yells out in a commanding tone, "Raise your A.T. Field to maximum capacity, Shinji!"

Shinji hesitates for a brief moment while gazing at Unit 02's back, but quickly snaps out of it by shaking his head rapidly with his head lowered slightly and his eyes shut. Determination then takes over his expression as Shinji nods with his eyes focused on Unit 02 again. "Got it, Asuka!" He then makes Unit 01 deploy its A.T. Field.

Asuka smiles and says with an optimistic tone, "If I'm right, then this should work!" She then deploys her Eva's A.T. Field while pointing Unit 02's shoulder pylons towards the enemy as the top part of the pylons open up. They then suddenly shoot out the multiple black spikes that are in them right towards Dummy Eva 06. Due to the assumption that its A.T. Field will block the attack, Dummy Eva 06 doesn't even attempt to move out of the path of the spikes.

Unfortunately for Dummy Eva 06, its A.T. Field has been neutralized by the combined efforts of Unit 02 and Unit 01's A.T. Field. As a result, some spikes pierce its head while others pierce its chest. This causes Dummy Eva 06 to let out a horrific roar of pain while tilting its head back as its body is leaning backwards.

Shinji smiles for a moment, but then is consumed with panic as he thinks to himself, "Shit!" Afterwards, he quickly makes Unit 01 grab onto Unit 02's shoulders with both hands.

Asuka's surprised at what Unit 01 just did as she looks behind her to see Unit 01. "What are you doing?!"

Without responding, Shinji makes Unit 01 pull Unit 02 behind it. Unit 01 then turns to face Dummy Eva 06 with intensity. Bright lights start to shine out of Dummy Eva 06's body and then it suddenly explodes, which the explosion is a huge one. Shinji has his A.T. Field deployed, but it shatters due to how strong the explosion is and Shinji then starts screaming out in pain. As the explosion continues, Asuka's clearly worried about Shinji while safely out of the reach of the explosion. She then screams out while tears start to form underneath her eyes, "Shinji!"

Mari sees the explosion while hearing Shinji screaming through the intercom. As she watches the explosion with concern being displayed, Mari thinks to herself, "Shinji..."

Hikari yells out with an urgent tone, "Look out above you, Mari!"

Mari quickly looks up in response to Hikari's outburst and sees that Dummy Eva 07 is right above her. This causes her to become very surprised while gasping a little as it can be noted that Dummy Eva 07's head is skull-shaped like Dummy Eva 06, but it doesn't have the hair as its eyes are red and its mouth is closed. It holds a short-handled, large bladed axe in each hand.

As Dummy Eva 07 descends, it swings both of its axes downward at Unit 05 while Mari continues to be surprised for a bit longer and then gets quite irritated. "You think you got me, shit-head?!"

With that said, Unit 05 swiftly thrusts its right javelin, which Mari's Eva has a javelin in each hand, and breaks right through the enemy's A.T. Field. The javelin then quickly goes right between the enemy's arms and pierces Dummy Eva 07's chest. This causes some blood to leak out of that wound, and as a result, Dummy Eva 07's descent is suddenly stopped. Right after that, Dummy Eva 07 drops its arms down while letting go of both axes as it's motionlessly, held up in the air by Unit 05's javelin, defeated due to its core unit being struck. Miraculously enough, it didn't blow-up like Dummy Eva 06.

At the same time, Mari has a proud smile on her face and mutters, "That's for trying to be sneaky, asshole." She then makes Unit 05 toss Dummy Eva 07 behind it while turning to look towards where Unit 01 and Unit 02 are supposed to be with concern returning. "I hope Shinji's alright. He stopped screaming while I was busy defeating that bastard."

Asuka yells out to Shinji with worry still being displayed, "Shinji! Are you alright, Shinji?! Answer me, damn it!"

Shinji hears Asuka's cry as he's breathing heavily with his head lowered. He's also holding onto his torso due to the pain he's still feeling from the explosion. "I'm alright... But how's Rei and Kensuke?"

Asuka makes an expression of realization after hearing what Shinji had just asked her. "That's right!" She then turns to look towards the direction of Unit 00 and Unit doing that, a shocked look appears on Asuka's face as she gasps.

The reason for that was due to Dummy Eva 08 having stabbed one of its chainsaws into Unit 04's stomach while the other one is stabbed into its head. Unit 04 is now motionless while lying on the ground that's in front of Dummy Eva 08. Right now, Dummy Eva 08's holding up Unit 00 by the neck with its left hand while that arm is extended away from it. While having its grip on Unit 00, Dummy Eva 08 is facing towards Unit 04 with Unit 00 on Dummy Eva 08's left. Asuka's in completely shock by what she's seeing and then looks upwards with concern while yelling out, "What happened?!"

Misato continues to watch the main screen with her hands clenched into fists while being very upset. "That bastard took them out without any real effort! Once it sliced Unit 00's arms in half, it was about to strike Unit 00 with both chainsaws, but Unit 04 stepped right in front of it and took the attack!" She then tries to calm herself down as she says, "Luckily, we severed the synchronization before it was too late. If not, Kensuke would have been seriously hurt. Right now, that bastard has a hold of Unit 00 by the neck and since its arms are useless, we decided to cut the synchronization between Rei and it as well before the enemy broke Unit 00's neck."

Asuka looks at Dummy Eva 08 with curiosity brimming and thinks, "That thing hasn't realized that Unit 00 is no longer active." She promptly smiles and nods to herself with determination brimming. "This is my chance!" She then makes Unit 02 run towards the enemy Eva as she yells out with confidence, "With it distracted, I can get the jump on it!"

Mari watches Unit 02 run towards the enemy with a plain expression and then smiles while suddenly making her Eva rush towards the enemy. "Don't think you can do it by yourself!"

Hikari watches Unit 05 dash towards Dummy Eva 08 just like Unit 02 with concern. "Is it just me, or does Mari see this as a competition with Asuka?"

In the meantime, Rei's currently looking up at the ceiling while having heard both cries from Asuka and Mari due to the intercom being the only thing in her Eva that's still on. She then mumbles to herself with a hint of content as she smiles lightly, "Here they come."

Dummy Eva 08 turns its body to face towards Unit 02 due to it being the first one that will reach it. As Unit 02's about to reach the enemy, Asuka smiles with confidence while Unit 02 pulls out its Prog Knife with its right hand from the lower part of its right pylon. "So what if you saw me! That's not going to stop me!" She then makes Unit 02 pull its right arm above its head while holding the Prog Knife upside down and swings its arm downward when it comes into contact with the enemy.

Unfortunately for both Asuka and Rei, Dummy Eva 08 protects itself from Unit 02's attack by putting Unit 00 in the path of the strike. Asuka wasn't able to stop in time, so Unit 02 thrusts its Prog Knife into the back of Unit 00's head. This causes Asuka to make a surprised expression at first, but then grits her teeth while being enraged by what the enemy had done. "You son of a bitch! How dare you use her as a shield?!" Unit 02 then quickly pulls out the Prog Knife from the back of Unit 00's head and tries to strike the enemy with the Prog Knife again by swinging Unit 02's arm in a right sideways angle.

In response, Dummy Eva 08 quickly throws Unit 00 at Unit 02 while backing away so it can dodge the strike. Unit 00 crashes into Unit 02, which keeps Asuka from chasing after the enemy. This causes her to be consumed with anger as she yells at the enemy while Unit 02 holds up Unit 00, "You cheap piece of crap!" After Dummy Eva 08 had successfully dodged the strike attempt, it turns around and leans towards Unit 04 while trying to reach for its chainsaws, which are still stuck into Unit 04's head and stomach.

Mari makes Unit 05 appear to the enemy Eva's right with a determined smile on her face and yells at the enemy, "You're way too slow, dumb-ass!" Unit 05 then thrust its left javelin into the head of the enemy Eva and completely pierces it all the way through the back of the head. Once its head is pierced, Dummy Eva 08 stops moving as the light in its eyes go off. It then drops to its knees as its head slides off the javelin and falls to the ground, face first.

Asuka's surprised for a moment as she sees the enemy Eva lying on the ground. She's then consume with annoyance as she glares at Unit 05. "What the hell?! I almost had it!"

Mari's image suddenly appears on Asuka's right side screen. She gives Asuka an innocent smile while saying with a hint of sarcasm, "I'm sorry. I'll let you get the next one." She then giggles.

Asuka gets even more annoyed as she looks at Mari with a fierce glare. "Just go to hell!"

Mari giggles again while saying with a malicious smile, "Not without Shinji."

Asuka becomes furious as she yells out, "In your dreams!"

Hikari hears both of them while still being at a distance away and then sighs in disappointment with her eyes shut. At the same time, she tilts her head slightly to the right and thinks, "Maybe they BOTH see it as a competition."

Misato also sighs while dropping her head down with her hands on her hips and closes her eyes. "Those kids are going to be the death of me."

Kaji looks at her with a smile. "You can't die on me yet." He chuckles afterwards.

Misato smiles while looking at Kaji out of the corner of her eyes. "You're right." She then lifts her head up and looks at the main screen again.

Aoba turns his chair to the left to look at Misato from his post with concern brimming. "Ummm... Colonel Katsuragi?"

Misato looks at him with a curious expression. "What is it?"

Aoba responds with a sad tone. "Touji hasn't left his entry plug yet. He's been in there the entire time."

Misato becomes quite serious while still looking at Aoba. "Then patch me through to him." In response, Aoba nods at her with a bit of determination. He then turns back around to face his screen and starts to type. Misato then looks up at the main screen with worry taking over as she crosses her arms.

Touji continues to sit in his entry plug while it's completely dark. He's currently in deep thought with an upset expression as he's looking down. "Dammit! I couldn't help them! Why didn't this damn Eva sync with me?! Could it have somethin' to do with that DAMN voice?!"

Misato's image appears on Touji's upper front screen as she's still worried. "Touji. It's time to get out of the Eva. The others already defeated the enemy."

Touji keeps looking down while still being a bit upset and responds, "Misato? Do ya think I'm useless?"

Misato responds to Touji's question with a caring tone while slightly tilting her head to the left. "No, Touji. You aren't useless."

Touji looks up at her with sadness in his eyes while trying not to lose his composure. "Then why couldn't I help them?! Why can't I sync with my Eva, Misato?!"

Misato's saddened by Touji's words as she keeps looking at him. "I don't know, Touji. But what I do know is that you aren't useless. No one thinks you're useless. Believe me." She then sincerely smiles at him and says with a hint of optimism. "I bet you'll be able to synchronize with Unit 03 after we figure out what the problem is, but I promise you, the problem is not you."

Touji's a bit surprised by what Misato said for a moment and then smiles slightly while nodding at her. "Mmm-hmm."

Misato continues to smile while being quite pleased with his acceptance of her words. "Good. Now get out of there so we all can celebrate our third victory."

Touji keeps smiling at her and says with an optimistic tone, "You got it!"

Gendo watches on from his seat with seriousness being displayed. He then thinks to himself as he's in his usual pose again, "This confirms it. I have no other choice now..."

Fuyutsuki stands on Gendo's right while calmly looking at him with his hands behind his back. "What do you think, Ikari?"

Gendo looks at Fuyutsuki out of the corner of his eyes and says with a firm tone, "Simple. We will have Colonel Katsuragi retrieve the new pilot. We'll even have the pilots go with her so that they can meet him."

Fuyutsuki makes a concerned expression while leaning towards Gendo and whispers, "Are you sure that you don't want to reconsider? You still haven't even told me anything about this new pilot."

Gendo looks away from Fuyutsuki and says with an emotionless tone, "That's irrelevant. Just remember that I have complete confidence in the new pilot. That should be good enough for you." He then glances at Fuyutsuki. "This will be the exact same thing I will tell Colonel Katsuragi. Don't feel like you'll be the only one with lack of information."

Fuyutsuki makes a moderately surprised expression as he straightens his posture. He then thinks with concern returning, "But he normally tells me everything. What is it about this new pilot that he can't seem to confide in me with the information regarding him?"

As Fuyutsuki contemplates his concerns with himself, Gendo thinks with seriousness resonating from his person as he's looking ahead of himself. "Its unfortunate, but I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone." He then smirks while thinking, "But at least the two of them will be together again."

With that thought, the scene suddenly changes and the main focus is now on the same boy who Gendo had spoken to earlier. He's currently sitting at his desk that has his laptop on it while being in the dark room from earlier. He's by himself in the room while looking at some information that's displayed on his laptop.

The boy smiles while placing his right hand on his cheek to hold up his head. "Every bit of information on NERV's pilots is right here." He then chuckles as he looks away from his laptop and closes his eyes while saying softly, "I'll be able to finish reading all of it in about an hour. I'll even have it all memorized as well."

After a few seconds, the boy slowly opens his eyes and looks towards the screen again. He then types in a name on the laptop's keys with his left hand while still holding his head up with the other hand. After that, the laptop reveals a picture of Shinji with his information on it as the boy sees it with no real emotion being displayed. "I wonder how your life has been in comparison to mine." The boy then closes his eyes again as he crosses his arms on top of the desk and rests his head down on top of them. "I guess, I'll experience it once I join you, Shinji." He chuckles again. "It's amazing. We haven't seen each other in almost twelve years. You probably don't even remember me."

The boy pauses for a moment while looking up at the screen as his chin's resting on his arms. "Let alone know that I even exist." He then looks at the ceiling with a spaced out expression while maintaining his head rested on his arms and softly says, "I wonder what it would be like once I'm there with all of the other pilots." The boy smirks with amusement suddenly appearing on his person. "That really shouldn't matter though. I need to remember what's important. I can't mess up like I did last time. I have to be distant from everyone so that there won't be any possibility of things turning out badly." His eyes are then consumed with sorrow as he says with a sad tone, "That's all there is to it."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

In the next episode, I will reveal who the new pilot is and I guarantee that there will be action. The action scene of this episode didn't seem to last that long. By my opinion, that isn't really a bad thing since not all action scenes have to be long. I will be displaying that a little bit more in future episodes, but it won't be that many. I'm really looking forward to writing the next episode, but I'm not sure when I will actually start on it. I'm starting to feel really sluggish since I've been writing a lot of episodes within a small time-frame.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	9. Episode 9

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

I've been looking forward to writing this episode for a long freaking time! I've always had a vision of this episode and then I would end up changing it a little bit in my mind, but now I'm pretty confident what the image of this episode is and I will write this episode with no regrets! Alright, I need to calm down before I annoy the crap out of my readers. This episode will have action, but the action is going to be quite epic while being short. Now you must be thinking, "How the hell is that possible?!" Well I will show it to you when the time comes, so be patient. You'll see the greatness when the time comes. Remember, this is based on my opinion so you might think it's not that epic, but everyone's opinion differs. I would like to thank again all who have read and review. It really means a lot. Also, thank the Great Anno for creating Neon Genesis Evangelion, and if you want, thank me for being a fan who decided to make a Fan fiction of a second season story. Enjoy!

Episode 9: The Look Alike With A Different Mentality

Time goes by and the children have already started school. They all end up being in the same class together again, which includes Mari. This obviously annoys Asuka a little, but she tries to get over it since she knows that the reason that Mari's in the same class is so that all the pilots are together. The children enjoy having something as normal as school return to them since they weren't really doing anything outside of being in the apartment. *Side Note: The school they are attending is the same one that the children had already attended, but it had to be rebuilt due to the damage it had received in the past. It was rebuilt to look the same, so no real improvements were made*

After the children had a week of school, their life style had reverted back to something that they are quite used to. Although, it still isn't completely the same since they're all living together, which they were told not to mention that to their classmates since it could complicate their social lives due to how people make assumptions. While the children are busy with school life, Misato has been quite busy with work and it's now Saturday. Misato has just been summoned to talk to Gendo and heads over there with Kaji, who's currently taking a small break from searching for SEELE. They both arrive at Gendo's office and they see him standing in front of his desk, which is a bit uncommon for him since he's almost always sitting, and he's even by himself this time.

Misato walks up to Gendo and stops at a small distance away from him with concern being noted on her person. "What did you want to talk to me about, sir?" As Misato asked that question, Kaji stands to the left of Misato while looking at both her and Gendo with a calm demeanor.

Gendo gives both of them a plain look and says with a firm tone while focusing his attention on Misato, "I will need you to go pick up someone who will be transported halfway through the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, that person won't be taken farther than that."

Misato becomes quite concerned while putting her right hand on her hip as she tilts her head slightly to the right. "Why is that?"

Gendo responds to Misato's question with no real emotion. "The people who will be transporting this person are the American Naval Forces. They only agreed to a halfway meeting because they're trying not to get involved with the issues of Japan."

Kaji becomes a bit confused by Gendo's statement while raising his left eyebrow slightly. "Trying not to get involved? Isn't America already involved after they sent their last Eva and pilot?"

Gendo closes his eyes while dropping his head down as he shakes it in disagreement. He then opens his eyes while looking up at Kaji. "They made the choice of not getting involved anymore. They don't want to be a part of the war that's between us and SEELE. They only agreed to help transport this person since they still owed me a favor." After saying that, Gendo pauses for a brief moment while taking a deep breath and then calmly says, "From what I heard, the 1st Branch was abandoned by all personnel right after they sent us Ms. Makinami and Unit 05."

Misato makes a serious expression while asking, "And why did you need the American Navy to bring that person halfway through? Can't he or she just take a plane over here?"

Gendo looks at her while still being serious. "Because the person they are bringing is our new pilot."

Both Kaji and Misato are surprised by what Gendo just said as they quickly look at each other in disbelief. They then turn their attention back to Gendo as Misato puts the hand that was on her hip down while taking a step towards Gendo with concern taking over. "A new pilot?! When was this decided?! Why wasn't I told sooner?!"

Gendo responds with an indifferent tone. "Calm down, Colonel Katsuragi. Your questions are quite unnecessary."

Misato gets a bit upset while taking another step towards him. "What do you mean they're unnecessary?!"

Gendo puts his hands in his pockets while stating with a firm tone, "Just know that the new pilot is needed, and that he will be of great help to us."

Misato thinks to herself while looking at Gendo with a disdained expression. "This is just like him. He always gives us half-assed information and expects us to trust him without any worry. He doesn't even tell me why we're getting a new pilot." Her eyes then widen as she realizes something while thinking, "Could it be because of Touji and Unit 03?!" After that, Misato narrows her eyes while looking down at the floor. She then thinks while trying to remain calm, "That can't be. I told Touji that he isn't useless, but if he gets replaced, he'll automatically think that he IS useless." With the completion of that thought, Misato looks up at Gendo with seriousness brimming and asks, "Is the new pilot... Touji's replacement?"

Kaji quickly looks at Misato while being quite surprised by what Misato just said. At the same time, Gendo gives Misato a cold stare while simply responding to her question. "That is a possibility. Unit 03 has been rejecting him as of late. It may have something to do with him."

Misato responds in a defensive tone while trying to hold back her anger. "That could be because of the Eva though! We can't assume that it's Touji's fault!"

Gendo states with a stern tone, "We will see. When you bring the new pilot, we will have him make the attempt to synchronize with Unit 03. Depending on how the test turns out, we'll see if it's the pilot or the Eva."

Irritation consumes Misato for a brief moment and then tries to calm down by sighing with her eyes closed. After doing that, the Colonel looks away from Gendo while being saddened by the possibility that Touji's the problem. "Alright. I guess that will be for the best."

Kaji watches Misato with worry being displayed and then looks at Gendo with a moderately serious expression. "Commander? Who is the new pilot?"

Misato's eyes widen from surprised while turning her attention to focus on Kaji and thinks, "That's right! I almost forgot to ask that!" She then looks at Gendo with a bit of concern brimming.

Gendo looks at both of them and calmly says, "You'll see when you meet him."

Misato's surprised by Gendo's statement for a moment. She then gets very irritated and yells out, "Really?! You aren't even going to tell us at least THAT much?!"

Gendo focuses his attention on Misato with a serious look. "Watch your tone. Remember who you're talking to, Colonel."

Misato tries to restrain herself from letting out another outburst while grinding her teeth a little. Fortunately, she's able to calm herself and bows down toward Gendo with her eyes closed. "Please forgive me, Commander." Afterwards, Misato straightens her posture while looking at Gendo with a cold stare. "I spoke out of line."

Gendo nods at Misato while displaying no real emotion. "You are forgiven." He then looks away from her while saying with a stern tone again. "Katsuragi. When you go retrieve the new pilot, you will take the other pilots since it's the weekend. You will be picking up the new pilot tomorrow. The reason for this is so that the other pilots can meet the new pilot as soon as possible."

Misato's moderately surprised by Gendo's words and says with concern quickly adding in, "Are you sure? Don't you think it will be best that the pilots are here? SEELE can attack at any moment."

Gendo calmly responds to Misato's concern. "It's fine. I'm not too worried about them attacking considering it won't take you long to return." After saying that, he looks away from both Kaji and Misato while saying with a somber tone, "Anyway, as long as the pilots are safe, that's all that matters."

Due to that last part Gendo stated, Kaji and Misato are both surprised while their mouths are opened a little. Fuyutsuki then suddenly walks into the room and walks right passed Misato and Kaji, who are looking at him. After that, he stands right next to Gendo and whispers into Gendo's right ear, "The preparations are complete."

Gendo looks at Fuyutsuki and calmly nods at him. He then looks at Misato and says, "Also, we have decided to have Unit 03 be taken by cargo plane with you. This is in the unlikely chance that you will be attacked."

Misato makes a concerned expression while being a bit surprised. "But why Unit 03?! Wouldn't it be better that we take another Eva instead?!"

Gendo responds with a plain tone. "Just trust me, Colonel."

Misato's shocked by what he said as she thinks, "Trust him?! But isn't it too much of a risk to take an Eva that's been rejecting its pilot instead of a reliable Eva?!" She narrows her eyes as she stares Gendo down with a scrutinizing look while thinking, "Why does it seem that he has a lot of faith in the new pilot?" Suddenly, Kaji places his right hand on Misato's left shoulder and looks at her with a reassuring smile. Misato then looks at him while having a slightly surprised expression and asks, "Kaji?"

"If the Commander says trust him, we should listen. After all, he is the Commander for a reason." After saying that, Kaji chuckles a little while still smiling.

Misato continues to be surprised for a while and then smiles at Kaji as she nods. Afterwards, Misato turns her attention to Gendo. "Alright, sir. I trust you."

Gendo nods at her with a hint of content. "Good. Now be sure that you and the pilots are ready for tomorrow."

In response, Misato makes a determined expression and nods at Gendo. This pleases Gendo and as a result, he nods at both Misato and Kaji. "Alright. You're dismissed."

Both Kaji and Misato give Gendo a quick bow. They then straighten their posture, turn away from Gendo and exit out of the room. At the same time, Fuyutsuki watched both Misato and Kaji leave. He then looks at Gendo with a calm gaze. "It seems you got away without needing to tell them anything. Did you even tell them anything about the pilot?"

Gendo looks at Fuyutsuki out of the corner of his eyes with seriousness showing. "Do you think I would tell them when I haven't even told you much about the new pilot?"

Fuyutsuki chuckles a little. "You're right." He then makes a cold expression towards Gendo. "But it still bothers me that the only thing you had told me about him is his name. Then, when I looked him up, which you knew I would, there was no information. Not even a picture. How do we know that the person that called you is actually him?"

Gendo looks away from Fuyutsuki to look ahead of himself. "Because I know it's him." He then thinks to himself, "I could never forget that voice."

As Misato and Kaji walk away from Gendo's office, they decided to call it quits for the day and go home. Once they get there, they tell the children about tomorrow while leaving out the detail that Unit 03 is going with them. This is for Touji not to worry just yet since it isn't entirely confirmed that he will be replaced. Kensuke is obviously happy about the news of going to an American Naval Fleet, which is what will be transporting the new pilot. He's obviously still a huge fan of the military. Asuka isn't too excited because she remembers that she was pretty bored when she was on Germany's Naval Fleet as the other children don't really care that much. The day continues on and then we see that all twelve Monoliths that represent the members of SEELE have gathered around for a meeting in the same room from before.

SEELE # 7 says with a calm tone, "I have just received some interesting information. There have been arrangements for the American Naval Forces to escort a new pilot for NERV."

SEELE # 4 chuckles and responds with arrogance in his voice. "Are they stupid?! Why are they getting involved with Japan?!"

SEELE # 11 states with a serious tone, "Ikari probably called in one of his favors that America owed him. They most likely won't get involved after this. They're tired of being caught in the middle of other people's wars."

SEELE # 6 responds with an arrogant tone as well. "That's pretty stupid by itself! Don't they realize that their fate is in Japan's hands?!"

Keel interrupts with a stern tone, "It doesn't matter! No matter what, we will be victorious!"

SEELE # 3 asks with a concerned tone, "So what should we do about this new pilot?"

Keel responds with a calm tone, "Don't worry. It's already been taken care of." He then chuckles in a menacing way.

With that said, the day comes to an end and the next day arrives. All the children, Misato and Kaji are currently in a modified military helicopter, which is big enough to fit all of them. It's heading towards the meeting point that was agreed on between Gendo and America's Naval Forces. At the same time, they are followed by the cargo plane that has Unit 03 inside of it. Kaji and Misato are sitting in the first row, which there are 4 rows. Each row can sit three people with Misato and Kaji in the first row as Misato's sitting near the helicopter's window while Kaji's to her left.

The next row has Shinji sitting between Mari and Asuka, which Mari is on Shinji's left while Asuka is on his right with her being near the window like Misato. Shinji looks like he's extremely uncomfortable since Asuka is yelling at Mari because of her being upset that Mari has her arms wrapped around Shinji's left arm while snuggling up against him. Touji and Hikari are in the next row while trying not to laugh at Shinji's inconvenience as Touji's on Hikari's left and sits directly behind Shinji, which results in him not being near the window. Rei and Kensuke are in the last row as Kensuke is trying to restrain himself due to how excited he is about them heading to the Naval Fleet. He's looking out the helicopter's window while Rei contentedly watching Kensuke from his left.

Misato looks out the window while seeing that they are slowly reaching the Naval Fleet. As she does that, no real emotion is displayed on Misato's expression as she holds her head up with her right hand on her cheek and thinks, "So we're almost there."

With that thought, Misato stares at the ocean that has been a vague red color due to the 2nd Impact, but wasn't as bad as the ocean of the Antarctic until the 3rd Impact, which had worsen the world's oceans even more to the point of it being a bloody red color and then thinks with sadness filling her eyes, "I feel bad that I didn't tell them that the new pilot is here to replace Touji." Misato quickly changes her negative thinking to positive and whispers to herself with an optimistic tone, "I can't assume that! We could find out that there's a problem with the Eva! That Touji isn't the problem!" Having said that, Misato nods to herself with confidence brimming.

Kaji watches her while smiling and thinks, "It seems like Misato's trying to think positive." He then turns his head to the left to look at Touji as he keeps thinking while making a moderately worried expression. "I really hope that things don't turn out as bad as we fear. If they do, there might be divergence between the children. It's already stressful with the constant war between Asuka and Mari. If the new pilot and Touji start to go at it, then there won't be any unity in NERV."

Asuka suddenly screams out at Mari with an upset tone, "I told you to let go of him!"

Mari giggles while still snuggling up against Shinji with her eyes closed. She then looks at Asuka and says with a playful tone, "Make me."

Shinji has a stressed out expression with his eyes glued to the floor while breathing heavily a little and thinks, "Please God, help me!"

Touji starts to laugh loudly with his head slanted backwards as he's grabbing onto his stomach. As Touji continues to laugh, Hikari's looking at him while trying not to laugh as she's smiling. At the same time, Rei's looking at all five of them for a moment. She then turns her attention to Kensuke with curiosity showing and thinks, "Although they are being so loud, Kensuke seems not to be distracted by it. He must really like the military." Rei smiles slightly while excitement can be noted on Kensuke's person.

Then, Kensuke sees that they are almost at the Naval Fleet, and having seen that, he yells out with joy, "We're here!"

Due to Kensuke's outburst, everyone looks out the window with a good amount of curiosity as they see that they have just reached the Naval Fleet. The focus then suddenly changes to a man in his late 50s as he has multiple medals on his Naval Uniform while wearing a Naval cap. The man looks pretty old as he has a rugged beard while having a pretty thick mustache. His hair is grey, which includes his mustache and beard. He's about 5'7" while his eyes are hazel and doesn't seem to be that muscular. Right now, he's standing on the port of a Naval ship, which is the front part, while awaiting the arrival of the helicopter and cargo plane as he's looking up towards them. Meanwhile, in the farther back part of that Naval ship, a boy is looking up at the helicopter and cargo plane while his face isn't being shown, but it can be seen that he's smiling. He's currently wearing a black, short-sleeved shirt and black jeans. After a few seconds of watching the helicopter and plane, the boy slowly starts to walk towards the front of the ship with a calm demeanor.

Soon enough, the helicopter lands on that very same Naval ship and the cargo plane lands on the water that's in front of the Naval ship. The children, Misato and Kaji soon get out and are greeted by the man from earlier, who introduces himself as the Captain of the Naval Fleet. The captain then solutes at them with his right hand while having a composed expression and says with a professional tone, "I'm glad to see that you all made it safely!"

Misato smiles as she solutes back at the captain. "Thank you very much." She then puts her hand down as she asks with a slight hint of curiosity, "So where's the pilot?"

The captain's slightly surprised by Misato's question as he slowly lowers his hand. He then rapidly looks around with some irritation brimming as he says, "Darn it! I told him that he needed to be by my side when you all arrived!"

Kaji stands on Misato's left while smiling at the Captain. "Don't worry about it. You know how kids are." He then looks towards the right to look at the children.

Kensuke's currently running around while being extremely excited by the Naval ships. At the same time, he's trying to record everything with his video camera. "Oh wow! This place looks so cool! Being a pilot really has its benefits!"

As Kensuke continues to be excited, Rei calmly watches him with her hands behind her back while smiling with amusement. Meanwhile, Touji and Hikari stand behind Rei while watching how Kensuke's reacting as they're lightly laughing. Kaji continues to watch those four for a moment longer and then turns his attention to the left to look at the other children while still smiling. Kaji sees Asuka and Mari stand in front of Shinji while arguing over him. As they do that, Mari's on Shinji's right while Asuka's on his left and both have each other's face close to the other as they glare at one another with determination. While those two are arguing, Shinji looks towards the sky while thinking to himself with stress still showing on his person, "Why me...?!"

After witnessing that, Kaji turns his attention back to the captain with an amused smile. "You see?"

The captain chuckles as he sees how the children are acting and then looks at Kaji with a slight smile. "You have a point." He then realizes something and quickly looks back at Shinji with a surprised expression.

Misato becomes a bit concerned due to seeing the captain's expression, looks at what the captain is looking at with confusion taking over and looks at him again afterwards. "What's wrong?"

The captain points at Shinji in response while being a bit stunned and says, " He... Looks just like..."

Both Misato and Kaji become quite concerned while looking at the captain. They're eyes then widen from surprise due to them seeing a boy suddenly appear to the captain's left as he looks almost exactly like Shinji. Right after that, the boy looks at the captain with a faint smile as his hands are in his pockets and says in a jokingly way, "Spooky, isn't it?"

The captain quickly snaps his head to look at the boy while being startled at the boy's sudden appearance and yells out, "Nero!"

As a result of the captain's outburst, all the children turn their attention to look at him. They see the boy who looks like Shinji and are all surprised by it as Nero looks at everyone with a nonchalant smile. As he looks at them, Nero notices Shinji and makes a curious expression. Afterwards, he casually walks towards Shinji, which involves Nero walking between Mari and Asuka to reach him, and stops right in front of the 3rd Child. As Nero and Shinji are face to face, Asuka's still surprised while looking at both of them.

In the meantime, Touji has a stunned expression for a moment while watching Shinji and Nero. He then smiles and yells out with his hands cupped around his mouth, "Hey, Shinji! I didn't know ya had a twin!" He then chuckles while putting his hands down.

Mari's still surprised as well while glancing at Touji for a moment. She then suddenly smells something, which causes her to look towards Nero while being in shock and thinks, "This smell! It's so similar to Shinji's! But all people have their own distinctive smell, so how could he possibly smell like Shinji?!"

Shinji looks at Touji, who's towards his right, out of the corner of his eyes with nervousness being displayed. "I don't though..."

Nero suddenly makes a serious expression after hearing what Shinji said while staring at him with intensity in his eyes. He then lowers his head while smirking. "That's correct... We just look-alike, that's all." After saying that, Nero lifts up his head to look at Shinji again with a mild smile.

Shinji looks back at Nero while being a bit surprised. He then lets out a nervous smile and hesitantly nods at Nero. "Uh-huh..."

Touji crosses his arms with a hint of annoyance as he mumbles to himself, "It was just a joke, Jeez. Ya don't have to take it so seriously."

With that being said, the others who haven't contributed into the conversation get a bit closer to Shinji and Nero while being at a small distance behind Nero as they continue to watch them. Nero doesn't acknowledge them getting closer due to him being focused on Shinji and then suddenly starts to inspect Shinji's physique by walking around him. This causes Shinji to become a bit more nervous as he watches Nero.

After walking around Shinji, Nero suddenly stops in front of him again and looks directly into Shinji's eyes for a moment. He then chuckles softly and says with an impressed tone, "We really do look-alike. We actually look too much alike. Don't you agree, Shinji Ikari?" He then slightly tilts his head to the right while smiling again.

In response, Shinji's eyes widen while being a bit surprised at Nero's statement. He then hesitantly nods at him, which after that, Nero makes an emotionless expression. After that, he continues to look into Shinji's eyes as he tilts his head slightly towards the left now. "Of course... There are a couple of physical differences while the mental differences are vast." He gets a bit closer to Shinji's face with his face while staring at him with the same intensity from before.

Shinji's nervousness increases even more while becoming a bit uncomfortable as he's looking back into Nero's eyes. He then notices something and thinks to himself with a bit of surprise taking over, "His eyes... They're brown..."

Nero randomly chuckles as he straightens his head's posture while still looking into Shinji's eyes. He then says in a low volume with a hint of admiration, "You're lucky to have those eyes."

Due to Nero's comment, Shinji's eyes widen as he takes a couple of steps back. Afterwards, Nero smiles while slowly turning around and walks towards the captain. He then stops in front of him and says with a polite tone, "Thank you for taking me this far". He then pulls out his left hand from his pocket to salute the captain with a composed posture.

The captain has a surprised expression for a moment due to Nero's sudden solute. He then smiles as he salutes back at Nero with his right hand. "It was my pleasure." After that, the captain puts his hand down while Nero does the same.

Asuka continues to be a bit surprised for a moment. She then notices something and thinks to herself while spacing out, "His hair is black." Asuka quickly looks at Shinji's hair and thinks, "But Shinji's hair is brown." She then smiles a little while softly saying to herself, "So, they don't look completely alike."

Nero puts his hand in his pockets again as he turns around to face the others while happily smiling. "Hello, everyone. My name is Nero Akaya. I'm the 7th Child. It's nice to meet all of you."

Touji has a confident smile as he walks up to Nero. He then says proudly while pointing at himself with his right thumb close to his chest, "The name's Touji! I'm the 4th Child!" After saying that, he turns his head to the left to look at Hikari and points at her with his left hand while putting his other hand down. "That's my girl, Hikari!" He then turns his head to look at Nero while pointing his left hand at him. "So don't get any ideas!"

Nero rolls his eyes in a casual manner while looking away from Touji as he keeps smiling. "Like I care about thinking like that. I'm not interested in things that are so simplistic." He then looks at Touji out of the corner of his eyes while losing his smile with coldness in his eyes. "Plus, she's not my type."

Touji puts his hand down while getting a bit irritated and yells at Nero. "Don't think looking like Shinji will keep me from kickin' your ass! Show some respect, dammit!"

Nero turns his head to look directly at Touji with a slightly upset expression. Even though he's a bit upset, Nero maintains his composure and says, "Don't do that."

Touji's confused by Nero's words as he tilts his head to the right. "Don't do what?"

Nero glares at Touji with seriousness brimming. "Don't compare me to him just because we look-alike. I'm me. I'll always be me and no one else." After Nero says that, he pauses for a moment while looking up at the sky without moving his head. "To compare a person to another is an insult, even if you mean it as a compliment. Because you're ignoring who that person has worked so hard to become." Nero then looks towards the right side of the ship with a hint of sadness gleaming in his eyes. "So don't ever compare me to others."

As a result of Nero's statement, everyone's surprised as they look at each other for a moment. Asuka then walks towards the side of the ship, which is the same side Nero's looking at. At the same time she does that, she leans her back against the rails with her elbows' resting on the railing while looking at Nero with concern. She then thinks to herself, "He may look like Shinji, but he's definitely different from him." She then pauses for a moment while looking towards the left and thinks, "I'll be sure to remember that."

Mari looks at Asuka with curiosity since she suddenly went to the side of the ship. Mari then mumbles to herself, "Asuka actually left Shinji's side..." After saying that, she makes a devious smile while thinking in excitement, "This is my chance!" She then looks at Shinji and quickly wraps her arms around Shinji's right arm. After doing that, Mari smiles at him and says with an enthusiastic tone, "Now I have you all to myself!" She then giggles a little.

Asuka looks toward Shinji and Mari with some shock showing on her face. She's then consumed with rage while removing herself from the rails and taking a step forward. "What did I tell you about touching him?!" Suddenly, there's a huge tremor and this causes Asuka to be surprised while losing her balance quite a bit. As a result, her back runs into the railing and cause her to yell out in pain.

Everyone on that ship had felt the tremor as well and are all looking around to see what had caused it. They then see that there's an enemy Eva and it had just attacked one of the Naval ships with a giant spear it's holding. It's currently standing on top of the Naval ship that it attacked while being completely white as it's an aquatic type Eva. This is confirmed by the pretty large fins that extend out of its arms and it having fin-like feet. Its head is a vertical oval-shape while a crescent blade is sticking out of its forehead. The weapon it carries is a large, white spear that resembles a trident spear.

Right after one of the Naval ships was attacked, the Naval Fleet's alarm goes off to notify the other ships that they are in danger. Misato then looks at the enemy Eva with a panicked expression while thinking, "That's just fucking perfect! The exact thing we don't want to happen, just had to happen!"

Dummy Eva 09 suddenly jumps off the Naval ship that it was on while pulling its spear over its head. It then lands onto the ship that's next to the one Misato and the others are in while crashing its spear down into its deck. This causes an impact that creates a wave, which collides into the other ships.

As a result, Misato and the others are all shook up due to the wave colliding into their ship. At the same time, Asuka was still up against the railing, and because of the wave, she's thrown overboard while screaming out in a panic, "Shinji!"

Shinji turns to look at the direction where Asuka was with a concerned expression. He's then consumed with horror when he sees that Asuka's gone and yells out with a panicked tone, "Asuka!" After Shinji let out that cry, everyone except Nero run up to the side of the ship and see Asuka having a hard time swimming in the water.

Misato yells out while being very worried, "What's going on?!"

Kaji yells out while still looking at Asuka with his hands on the railing, "She's having a hard time swimming because of the strong current that the ship makes when moving!"

Shinji looks at them while having a panicked expression. "Someone has to go save her!"

The captain looks at all of them while saying with urgency, "I'll tell my men to shut off the routers!" He then quickly turns and runs off.

Rei yells out to Asuka while trying to reassure her, "Don't worry, Asuka! We'll get you out!"

Asuka yells out to them while trying to swim away from the current since it's trying to pull her under the ship, "Hurry! I can't keep this up much longer!" She's then suddenly submerged under the water.

Shinji screams out in panic, "Asuka!" He then starts to get on top of the railing with the thought of jumping after her.

Mari quickly wraps her arms around his waist to stop him with her eyes closed and yells out with an urgent tone, "Don't do it, Shinji! You won't be able to help her! You'll just put yourself in danger!"

Misato looks at Shinji while nodding in agreement and says with a stern tone, "She's right, Shinji!"

Shinji screams out while still trying to go after Asuka, "I don't care! I don't want to lose her!"

Nero hears Shinji's cry and thinks with no real emotion being displayed, "It seems like he really does care about her." He then smirks while being quite content.

Shinji screams out again, "Asuka!" He then looks at Mari with an upset expression. "Let me go, Mari!"

Mari shakes her head while looking up at him with worry brimming. "I can't do that, Shinji! I don't want anything bad to happen to you!"

Nero suddenly runs up to the railing with his hands out of his pockets with a composed look on his face. Afterwards, he jumps on top of the railing and jumps off the ship while diving towards the water, head first.

Misato looks at Nero while being shocked and yells out in a panic, "Nero!" The others also look at Nero as he descends into the water and are shocked at what he just did.

Nero takes a deep breath as he dives into the water with his eyes closed. Afterwards, he frantically looks around while casually swimming in place until he sees that Asuka's already under the ship. This causes him to be in shock as he thinks, "Damn it! I have to hurry!" He then quickly swims towards her as fast as possible, which amazingly enough is extremely fast.

As Nero does this, the others continue to watch the water while they're all concerned. Shinji then thinks to himself while still being very concerned. "Asuka... Please be okay..." As Shinji and the others continue to worry with their focus on the water, they suddenly see Nero ascend from underneath the water and see that he's holding onto Asuka. This surprises everyone in a good way while Shinji yells out of joy, "Asuka!"

Mari had let go of Shinji to lean over the railing with a joyful smile while yelling out, "Way to go, Nero!"

Touji joins in while being a bit hyper and does a small fist pump with his right hand, "Yeah! Way to go, man!"

Nero looks up at everyone with his right arm wrapped around Asuka's waist. At the same time, he's obviously exhausted while swimming in place. "Hey!" After that, Nero pulls up Asuka's unconscious body a little bit so that he doesn't lose his grip on her. "Can I get some help here?!"

Misato says with a serious tone while leaning a bit over the railing, "Just hold on!" She then looks at the helicopter pilot, who's still in the helicopter, and signals him to go retrieve Asuka and Nero.

The helicopter pilot nods in response with determination being displayed. He then makes the helicopter start-up and has it go into the air. At the same time, Kaji's quite amazed while focused on Nero and thinks, "That's incredible! It shouldn't be physically possible for him to be able to swim against such a strong current! And he's even doing it so effortlessly too!"

Right after that, the helicopter descends above Nero and Asuka while releasing a rolled-up ladder to reach both of them. Nero then looks at Asuka with concern. "Asuka! Wake up, Asuka!" He promptly puts his right ear close to Asuka so he can check if she's still breathing. Afterwards, he lets out a sigh of relief with his eyes and his head lowered. "Thank goodness. She's breathing." Nero then opens his eyes as he turns his attention to the ladder while reaching for it with his left hand. After grabbing a hold of the ladder, he places his left foot on it and looks up at the helicopter while nodding. "Now!"

The helicopter pilot nods back at Nero and then looks in front of himself while pulling on the controls to make the helicopter ascend. As this happens, Misato and the others all cheer as they see the helicopter ascend and go above the ship they're on.

Unfortunately, Dummy Eva 09 notices the helicopter and turns to looks at it while pulling its spear off the ship that it's on. It then points its spear towards the helicopter while Misato sees the enemy's action with horror all over her face. "It's planning on attacking the helicopter!"

Shinji's in shock while looking at the enemy Eva for a moment. After that, he looks at the helicopter and yells out, "No! Asuka!"

Dummy Eva 09's about to attack the helicopter, but it's stopped by the other Naval ships that started to release fire on it. It then turns its attention towards one of those ships and swiftly jumps off the ship it is on while pulling its lance back and next to its right cheek. After doing that, as it descends on to the other ship, it thrusts its spear into it.

Although they know they aren't out of danger, Misato and the others all sigh out of relief due to them not being the next target. In the meantime, Nero gets off the ladder since the helicopter is now low enough for him to do that. Once he gains some balance from getting on the ship, he walks towards Shinji while carrying Asuka marital-style. They're both still soaked from the water as Nero has a calm demeanor.

Shinji smiles as he rushes to Nero and stops in front of him with concern brimming. "Asuka! Are you alright, Asuka?!"

Nero smiles at Shinji while maintaining his calmness. "Relax, Shinji. She's alright. She's just unconscious."

With that said, Nero extends out his arms to give Asuka to Shinji, which Shinji indeed grabs onto Asuka and holds her up marital-style for a little bit. Unfortunately for Shinji, he can't hold her for that long so he gets on his knees while lying Asuka onto the floor as he's looking at her with a smile. This causes Nero to chuckle from amazement while thinking, "I can't believe it. He can't even hold her up for twenty seconds?" He then realizes that the enemy is still destroying the other ships, looks at it out of the corner of his eyes with a moderately serious expression and says softly to himself, "I almost forgot about him."

Rei walks up to Misato's left side and says with a slightly concerned tone, "Misato, what are we going to do?"

Misato looks at Rei with sadness in her eyes. "Well... We do have Unit 03 with us."

Kensuke's surprised by what Misato said while rushing up next to Rei with his camera in his right hand. "Really?!" He then turns to look at the cargo plane with astonishment. "So that's why that plane came with us!"

Nero turns to look at them after also hearing Misato's words with curiosity showing while thinking, "Unit 03...?" He then calmly turns his attention towards the cargo plane and says to himself, "So, he made sure that Unit 03 would be here." Nero chuckles with a content smile taking over. "Who would have thought his instincts would have been so accurate?"

Touji walks up to Misato with concern radiating. "But Misato... You know that I've been having a hard time with my Eva. Why would you have them bring it instead of another Eva?"

Misato maintains her sadness from before while looking away from Touji. She then becomes quite surprised when she sees Nero suddenly run right pass her and lets out a small gasp. Right after that, she yells out in a commanding tone, "Nero! Where do you think you're going?!"

Nero ignores Misato's cry as he runs towards the cargo plane and quickly enters it from the dock of the plane. At the same time, Touji's looking towards the cargo plane for a moment with confusion being noted on his face. He then looks at Misato with a shocked expression. "Misato! He ain't thinkin' of piloting my Eva, is he?!"

Misato's unable to respond to him due to her being stunned at that thought. She then hears a sudden explosion, which makes her look towards one of the other ships. In the meantime, Dummy Eva 09 had just destroyed two Naval ships and its standing on a ship that's located in front of the ship that has everyone on it. It's currently staring at that exact ship that's in front of it.

Mari becomes very annoyed while standing next to Shinji as she's looking directly at the enemy Eva. "This is bad! We're sitting ducks over here!"

Kaji walks up to Misato's right while turning his attention towards the enemy with a hint of worry. "All it has to do is throw its spear and we're done for."

Misato's enraged by Kaji's words while still looking at the enemy and yells out, "I don't need to hear that right now, Kaji!"

Hikari suddenly yells out while looking at the direction of the cargo plane as she's pointing at it with her right hand, "Look!"

In response, Misato and the others turn to look at the cargo plane. They are then surprised when they see that Unit 03 has come out of the cargo plane, which is possible since the cargo plane's roof can open up.

Nero sits on the entry plug's seat while holding onto the controls. Also, he's wearing his normal clothing since there wasn't any time to look for a plugsuit while Nero has a determined smile with his eyes focused on Dummy Eva 09. "It's been a long time since I've been in an Eva. It brings very few good memories..." Sadness then gleams in his eyes while saying, "And a lot of painful ones." After that, Nero chuckles while leaning forward with his eyes closed and his head lowered. "Oh well... I made the agreement to join. I can't back out now."

Touji has a depressed expression as he watches Unit 03 and thinks, "It's actually working for him. That means the problem was me all along." At the same time, Misato looks at Touji with worry on her person for a moment. She then looks towards the floor while sadness takes over.

In the meantime, Dummy Eva 09 sees Unit 03 and then pulls back its spear. After that, with as much force as possible, Dummy Eva 09 throws its spear at Unit 03. Misato then makes a shocked expression as she sees the spear fly over them and towards Unit 03.

Nero tries to deploy Unit 03's A.T. Field in response, but instantly realizes something as he yells out in a panic, "Ah, shit!" He then pulls Unit 03's controls to make it move to the left by only moving the Eva's upper body. As a result, Unit 03 was able to dodge the spear, which causes the spear to land into the water. Nero briefly looks behind himself while being relieved that he was able to dodge the spear. "That was too close for comfort." He then looks at the enemy with a hint of annoyance resonating. "It seems like Unit 03 is still configured to Touji's mentality." Nero makes a nervous smile. "This isn't good..."

Dummy Eva 09 suddenly launches itself from the ship that it was on and goes over the ship the others are on to reach Unit 03. Nero then smiles with tenacity radiating as he tightens his grip on the controls and braces himself. "This is really going to hurt!" Then, Dummy Eva 09 thrusts the crescent shape blade that's on its head into Unit 03's stomach as the momentum of Dummy Eva 09 makes them both fall into the water. As this happens, Nero yells out in pain due to the crescent blade piercing Unit 03's mid-section. "Yep! Definitely hurts!"

Misato's in shock as she and the others watched what just had happened. She then yells out with a mortified tone after realizing something important, "Unit 03 has Type B equipment on! It won't do well in the water!"

Unit 03 descends a little bit deeper into the water as the enemy had removed its crescent blade from Unit 03's stomach. Nero then looks around in the entry plug with a calm demeanor. "By the look of it, this Eva's using Type B equipment." He then chuckles a little while looking ahead of himself, "That just complicates things more. Not only am I having a hard time synchronizing with the Eva because of its crappy configuration... Now I have to deal in the environment that my enemy is at its best."

Dummy Eva 09 has separated itself from Unit 03 a little bit. After doing that, it decides to swim a bit farther away from Unit 03. Once it's at a considerable distance away from Unit 03, it starts to swim around its enemy at an incredible speed.

Nero follows the enemy's movements with a light smile on his face while Unit 03 stands still in the water and then jokingly says, "Not bad... Proportional wise, you're almost as fast as me in the water." He laughs at his own joke as he slowly releases his hold on the controls. After that, Nero puts his hands together to crack his fingers and neck at the same time. As Nero does that, his eyes are locked on Dummy Eva 09 with an emotionless gaze while the enemy swims around Unit 03. "Enough joking around though. I have no other choice in this situation, but to make Unit 03 go berserk. My normal synchronization would have beaten you easily, but due to what I have to work with, I can barely make it to a sync ratio of 80%."

After saying that, Nero grabs onto the controls again. "And from what I've learned after watching the videos of NERV vs. SEELE, anything under 90% won't even leave a dent on you guys unless I have another Eva backing me up." He then closes his eyes while softly sighing with his head lowered. "It can't be helped though."

Meanwhile, Dummy Eva 09 stops swimming around Unit 03 without warning and stands ahead of it at a considerable distance. It then launches itself towards Unit 03 at an intense speed while Nero slowly opens his eyes to look up at the enemy with a hint of excitement. "Let's do this! Berserker, over 100%!"

Suddenly, Unit 03's eyes glow a faint orange color as Dummy Eva 09 almost comes into contact with Unit 03. At that moment, Unit 03's A.T. Field expands to a large extent, and due to it appearing, Dummy Eva 09 runs right into it. After that, the enemy Eva is sent backwards from pure force and strength of the A.T. Field.

Nero continues to smile as Unit 03 swims towards the enemy in an instant like a jet under water. It quickly swims right above the enemy while facing Dummy Eva 09. In response, Dummy Eva 09 turns its body to look and face Unit 03 while trying to reach for it with both hands. Nero then forcefully pushes on the right control to make Unit 03 grab onto the enemy's head with its right hand, and with no effort at all, crushes it. Then, for good measure, he thrusts Unit 03's left hand into the chest of the enemy Eva and grabs onto its core.

After doing that, Nero says with a relaxed tone, "Luckily for me, I didn't have to go any higher with my synchronization to defeat you." Coldness then rises from within Nero while intensity gleams in his eyes. "Because I'm not too sure what would happen after 200%." With that said, Unit 03 suddenly crushes the enemy's core, which causes a white light to illuminate from it while also shinning out from Dummy Eva 09's chest.

Right after that, the focus turns to Misato and the others as they're looking towards the direction Unit 03 and Dummy Eva 09 had gone underwater while Asuka's still unconscious. They then see a giant explosion arise from under the water all of a sudden and this results in everyone being surprised. Ironically, the explosion wakes up Asuka as she's slowly opening her eyes and looks at Shinji.

Asuka smiles lightly as she sees Shinji looking at the giant explosion. She then says to him while feeling a bit weak, "Hey, there."

Shinji is surprised after hearing Asuka's voice and then looks at her with a relieved expression. "Asuka! You're awake!"

Asuka nods at him while still smiling and says faintly, "Yeah... Thanks for saving me again..."

Confusion quickly takes over Shinji's expression while losing his smile. "What are you talking about?"

Asuka giggles a little from amusement and responds while still feeling weak. "Don't be modest... I saw you swimming towards me before I passed out."

Shinji's saddened by what Asuka said due to the obvious fact that she's thanking him for something he didn't do. He then looks away from her and mumbles to himself, which Asuka is unable to hear him, "But it wasn't me who saved you..."

Misato watches as the giant explosion dissipates with the water reverting back to normal. After that, she says with concern showing, "What just happened?!"

To answer Misato's question, Unit 03 suddenly rises up to the surface and grabs onto the cargo ship with its right hand. It then pulls itself out of the water and gradually stands on top of the cargo ship as the roof of the cargo ship is closed. At the moment they see Unit 03, Misato and the others are happy due to Nero obviously being alright as they figured that he was victorious against the enemy Eva. Then, some of the children start to applaud Nero for his victory.

In the meantime, Nero smiles while looking at them and thinks, "It's been a long time since I had people cheer for me." He chuckles while dropping his head down with his eyes closed. "I forgot this feeling." Nero then slowly opens his eyes after saying that while being a bit sad. "But maybe this feeling should have stayed forgotten."

While the others celebrate Nero's victory, Touji isn't celebrating that much since it has been confirmed that Unit 03 actually works for Nero, but not for him.

At the same time, Kaji has a content smirk on his person for a moment while looking at Unit 03. He then suddenly realizes something while losing his smirk as concern takes over. After that, Kaji looks at Misato and sees her with a happy expression as her focus is on Unit 03. Kaji then walks up next to her with seriousness brimming. "Misato."

Misato looks at him while still smiling at first. She then becomes a bit concerned when she notices the serious look on his face. "What is it, Kaji?"

Kaji responds with a firm tone. "Don't you think it's too much of a coincidence that Nero looks like Shinji?"

That question surprises Misato while whispering to him so that the children don't hear her. "You don't think he could be related to Shinji, do you?! They both said earlier that they aren't though!"

Kaji shakes his head. "I wasn't thinking that. I was thinking that Nero could be a clone of Shinji."

Misato's even more surprised while letting out a minor gasp. She then leans towards Kaji with concern emitting. "There's no way! I think it would make more sense that they're related!"

Kaji nods in agreement. "Of course it would make more sense, but we need to have an open mind. Remember, you never considered there would be a storage room full of Reis in the lower level of Dogma before."

Misato makes a serious expression while briefly looking away. She then looks back at Kaji and nods. "You're right. But we have to ask Commander Ikari before we keep letting our imaginations run wild. And this time, I'm going to make him tell me everything." After saying that, both Misato and Kaji nod at each other with determination arising.

As Misato and Kaji had their conversation, Nero's looking towards their direction while still residing within Unit 03's entry plug. He then laughs to himself while leaning forward and holds up his head with his right hand as the elbow of that hand rests on his curled-up right leg. "By the expression on their faces, it looks like they're a bit worried about me. I can sort of make out what they're saying, but I'm not THAT good in reading lips." Nero then pauses for a moment as he turns his eyes away. "Either way, I'm not worried that much. They won't get any real information about me unless I want them to."

After that, Nero smiles while leaning his back against the seat and puts his hands behind his head. He then turns his attention back to Misato and Kaji while his left leg rests on top of his right knee. "But let them try as hard as they want and be disappointed when they find out there's no information available." With those words, Nero pauses for a moment with his gaze now in front of himself while a chilling look takes over. "The only person they could have gotten information from had already promised me that he wouldn't." He then smirks in a sinister manner while glancing towards the right. "And there's no way, he would risk breaking a promise to me now."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Hope you all enjoyed this episode. To all of you who haven't read my 2nd Branch story, Nero Akaya is my personally created character, which is quite obvious. He has a HUGE role in my second season story, just like in my 2nd Branch Story. If you want to know more about Nero prior to this, read my 2nd Branch story, but I suggest you don't since that will add more to the suspense of who Nero really is. Even though, some of you may have already figured it out. Yes, my 2nd Branch story is a spoiler to some of this, so read it at your own risk. By the way, I combined the story line of the rebuild movies with the original series a bit so if you notice that I put something that doesn't fit with the series, it's most likely because I got it from the movies.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	10. Episode 10

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

I'll keep this short. This episode might have action, but it depends on how the episode works itself out. I'm actually not too sure how this episode will turn out, although I know most of what I'll be writing about. You all will be reading something very familiar, but unfortunately, I won't be giving any hints. I just really hope I do a good job on this episode and I will be taking my time with this episode since I've been writing a lot lately. Well, enjoy the episode. Neon Genesis Evangelion belongs to Anno and I make no claim of owning it.

Episode 10: The Name That Stands For Strength and Powerful

After Nero's victory over the enemy Eva, everyone had returned to Japan. As soon as they returned, Misato tried to confront Gendo, but unfortunately for her, Gendo and Fuyutsuki had left to attend a meeting with Japan's government involving their progress with battling SEELE. The fact that she can't confront Gendo upsets Misato quite a bit, but she lets it go for the time being. She was notified by Ritsuko that Gendo has ordered that Nero would be living with them as well and this brings up their current issue. They're all currently in the apartment while some of the children are in the kitchen as Misato and Kaji talk to Nero about the living arrangements while being near the couch that's facing towards the television in the living room.

Nero's leaning against the back part of the couch while looking at Misato and Kaji, who are in front of him, with curiosity. "So, what's the situation?"

Misato looks at him with an unsure expression. "Well... you could live in the living room." She then points towards the couch that Nero's leaning against. "You would sleep there..." She then points to the couch that Mari sleeps on as she looks at it. "Mari's already sleeping there." She puts her hand down as she looks at Nero again.

Nero tilts his head to the right with skepticism being displayed while his right eyebrow's raised and his head is slanted slightly to the left. "Don't you think that's a bit inappropriate?"

Touji gets a bit irritated while he stands on the left side of the room, which is the same side where his room is located, as Hikari's on his right. "If ya haven't noticed, we're all sleepin' in the same room with the person we love! So for ya to say that...!" He closes his eyes as he cringes for a moment. After that, Touji glares at Nero with intensity. "It really pisses me off!"

Hikari pulls onto Touji's right arm with both hands and says with concern showing, "Calm down, Suzuhara...!"

Nero looks at Touji with no real emotion. "Well as you can see, I have no one like that here. What I just said was in reference to only myself. I wasn't talking about any of you."

Touji gets a bit more irritated, but then smiles while trying to act cool. "Well since you look like Shinji, Mari might give up on him and go after you." He then looks at Mari with a slightly arrogant smile.

Nero gets a little irritated while thinking to himself, "It looks like he forgot that I don't like being compared to others."

Mari smiles as she looks back at Touji. She then turns her attention to Asuka, who's standing next to Shinji ,while being near the kitchen table and says in an arrogant manner, "She wishes."

As a result of Mari's statement, Asuka glares at her while being a bit annoyed. Shinji then looks at Asuka with concern being noted and says in a delicate way, "Now relax, Asuka. You don't need to get mad."

In the meantime, Nero looks at all of them with an indifferent look. Afterwards, he focuses his attention on Misato, who's looking at the other children, and says with a curious tone, "Hey, Misato...?"

Misato looks at him with a hint of concern. "What is it, Nero?"

Nero puts his hands in his pockets while looking at the surroundings of the apartment with curiosity still being displayed. "How many bedrooms are there?"

Misato's a bit surprised for a moment due to Nero's sudden question. She then responds while regaining her composure. "The apartment has five bedrooms, but one is full of stuff that was stowed away in there."

After hearing that, Nero's slightly confused while looking at Misato with his head tilted a bit to the right. "Why haven't you guys cleaned it out?"

Misato smiles at him with a bit of embarrassment brimming. As she does that, she's rubbing the back of her head with her left hand. "Well... We didn't really consider doing that. When Mari moved in, she was fine with sleeping on the couch. So, no thought was put into cleaning it out." She then giggles while still being a bit embarrassed.

Nero straightens his head while looking around as he asks, "So, where's the room?"

Shinji answers Nero while pointing towards his left with his right hand as that direction is on the right side of the apartment from Nero's perspective, "It's right over there to the left of the bathroom."

Asuka's attention is on Nero while nodding with a slight smile. "Yeah. It's on the same side our room's in."

Nero looks towards his right with a casual expression and then lowers his head slightly to look at two duffel bags that are in his possession while they're to his right. After that, Nero bends over to pick them up, and once he has a hold of them, he straightens his posture and heads towards the room full of stuff. When he reaches the door, he puts his stuff down and slides the door open. It's revealed that the room is full of boxes as Nero looks inside the room to get a good idea of how much stuff is in there with a hint of curiosity being displayed. He then smiles while turning his head to the right to look at the others. "This is good. I'll be able to clean it up in a couple of hours." With that said, Nero turns his attention back to the room and starts to move stuff around.

Misato takes a step towards Nero while extending out her right arm a bit towards him with a bit of concern showing. "Are you sure? Don't you think it would be easier if you just sleep on the couch?"

Nero keeps moving the stuff around as he casually responds. "I don't consider that an option. To me, it would be too inappropriate to be sleeping in the same room with Mari. I'm willing to go through the effort of having my own room." After saying that, Nero pulls out a box and turns to face Misato while still holding it. "I don't really mind doing this." He then sincerely smiles at her.

Kensuke sits on the couch that's facing towards the television as Rei's next to him while currently looking at Nero. "Do you want some help?"

Nero turns his gaze to Kensuke with a light smile. "Thanks for the offer, but I can handle it." He then puts the box down and turns to look back at the room. Afterwards, he grabs a hold of another box and pulls it out while revealing that Pen-Pen had been trapped under that box.

In response to being freed, Pen-pen gasps for air as if he had been suffocating under that box with his eyes opened wide. At the same time, Nero stares at him while blinking in a confused way a little as Pen-Pen stares right back at him with a plain look. Nero then slowly turns his head to the right to look at Misato with a nervous smile taking over while pointing at Pen-Pen with his left as he holds the box he had picked up with his right. "Umm... Did you guys know you have a penguin in this room."

Misato briefly makes a surprised expression and then runs up next to Nero's right while looking over him. She then gasp when she sees Pen-Pen and yells out, "Oh my God, Pen-Pen! That's where you've been! I've been looking all over for you!" After saying that, Misato walks around Nero and reaches to grab onto Pen-Pen as he starts to act up a bit due to being happy that he's been found. Misato then holds him in her arms with both her and him facing Nero to introduce Pen-Pen to Nero while looking at both of them, "Pen-Pen, this is Nero. He's going to be staying with us from now on. Now, don't go getting him confused with Shinji, okay?"

Pen-Pen looks up at Misato for a moment while nodding. He then looks at Nero and gives him a moderately loud squawk. This causes Nero to chuckle and then extends out his left hand to Pen-Pen while saying with an amused tone, "Nice to meet you, Pen-Pen"

In response, Pen-Pen looks at Nero's hand and extends out his left fin for Nero to grab and lets out a joyful squawk towards Nero while having his eyes closed.

Misato smiles while seeing how well Nero and Pen-Pen are getting along. She then focuses her attention onto Pen-Pen and says to him with a caring tone, "You must be hungry. Let me go get you some fish. The ones you really like."

All Pen-Pen can do to respond to that is look at Misato with a happy expression and let out another joyful squawk. Misato then turns to head towards the kitchen while looking at Nero out of the corner of her right eye. "Good luck with the moving, and thanks for finding Pen-Pen."

Nero nods in response while saying with a content tone, "No problem." After that, Nero puts down the box he's been holding and continues to move the stuff in the room around.

In the meantime, Asuka has a moderately amazed expression while watching Nero and thinks, "When Nero said that he could handle moving the stuff earlier, he reminded me of Shinji when said he could handle fighting against the enemy by himself. Nero sounded just as confident as he did." After thinking that, Asuka's eyes widen as she realizes something. She then quickly looks away while being quite irritated at herself as she thinks, "Damn it. I forgot, Nero doesn't like being compared." She then sighs out of relief with her eyes closed while thinking, "Well as long as I don't say my thoughts out loud, I won't have to worry about getting into fights with him like that stupid stooge keeps doing."

Shinji looks at Asuka while spacing out quite a bit as he thinks to himself, "I haven't told her yet about Nero being the one who saved her. I need to remember to tell her. I don't want to take credit for something I didn't do." He then drops his head down while being consumed with sadness as he thinks, "But I still feel bad that I couldn't do anything for Asuka."

Some time goes by and Nero finishes cleaning out the room right around the time he had predicted. All the stuff that had been in the room was taken to a storage room in a different area of the Geofront by Nero and Kaji. While they did that, kaji had tried to get answers out of Nero in a discreet way, but Nero ignored his question with the help of his black music player that resembles an Ipod Touch, but smaller. Currently, everyone in the apartment are content with their living arrangements, but not everyone is at ease. It's 9:39 PM while Touji and Hikari are in their room together, which the room looks like Shinji and Asuka's room, but instead of having a closet; It has another dresser that's located on Touji's side of the bed. They are lying on their bed with Hikari being held by Touji's right arm as she's snuggled up against him while lying on her left side. They're both looking at the ceiling while being dressed to go to sleep. Touji's wearing a grey t-shirt while wearing dark blue shorts and Hikari's wearing light brown pajamas that are lighter than her hair.

Hikari looks at Touji with concern brimming while lying on her left side. "Are you still worried about Nero?"

Touji makes an irritated expression with his eyes focused on the ceiling while his left arm's behind his head. "I really don't wanna talk 'bout it."

Hikari becomes more concerned while getting closer to Touji. "But I want to know. I don't want you to bottle up your feelings, Suzuhara." She then makes a small smile at him with sincerity taking over. "It will help if you let out how you feel, and I will help you get through it".

Touji closes his eyes as he lets out a soft sigh. He then turns his head to look at Hikari with a smirk. "I know you're worried 'bout me, but I really just wanna ignore what's happenin' right now." He looks back up at the ceiling and says with an optimistic tone, "Anyway... With Nero being a threat to my position as pilot, I'll just be more hyped up to protect it!" He then gives out a confident laugh.

Hikari keeps smiling as she snuggled up to Touji and says cheerfully, "I bet you'll rise up and keep your spot!"

Touji laughs proudly. "Ya damn right! Nero woulda just come here to watch me kick some SEELE ass!" After saying that, Touji continues to laugh.

With that, the scene focuses on Shinji/Asuka's room while Shinji's currently sitting on his side of the bed with his attention turned away from Asuka, who's lying down on her left side as she's looking at him with concern being displayed. As she does this, it can be noted that Asuka's wearing a red and white striped tank-top with light blue denim shorts that fits perfectly against her body while Shinji's wearing a white t-shirt and black shorts.

Asuka sits up while still being concerned. She then leans over Shinji's right to look at his face. "What's wrong, Shinji?"

Shinji looks at her out of the corner of his right eye with sadness resonating within them. "I need to tell you something, Asuka."

Asuka continues to be concerned while getting on all fours as she tilts her head slightly to the right after getting closer to Shinji. "What is it? You can tell me anything, Shinji." After saying that, Asuka pauses for a brief moment and thinks while looking away from Shinji, "But I hope it doesn't have anything to do with Mari. I was knocked-out earlier, after all, and she could have done something." She then looks back at him.

Afterwards, Shinji turns his body to face her with sadness brimming as he looks down at the bed. "I didn't... Save you."

Confusion takes over Asuka's expression while pulling her head back a little bit. "What are you talking about?"

Shinji keeps looking down while tightly clenching his hands into fists. "It wasn't me who saved you. It was Nero who jumped in to save you."

Asuka's surprised by what she just heard while being unable to respond. Shinji then looks up at her with an upset expression. "But I tried to jump in after you, I swear! But Mari was keeping me from jumping in, and then Misato told me not to jump because I would have been in danger too! I really wanted to help you, Asuka!"

After having heard those sincere words from Shinji, Asuka smiles with happiness radiating from her. She then gets even closer to Shinji and gives him a kiss on the lips. After that, Asuka pulls away from him and gives him a caring look. "I know you would have. Just remind me to thank Nero." She then becomes quite curious while losing her smile and tilts her head to the left. "By the way, did you thank him for saving me?"

Shinji's eyes quickly widen from realization while yelling out, "Oh crap! I forgot to thank him!"

In response, Asuka giggles a little before saying, "Then we'll thank him together." With that said, Asuka leans towards Shinji while closing her eyes and gives him another kiss. Shinji returns her kiss while closing his eyes as well. While Kissing Asuka, Shinji feels relieved that he finally told her the truth and that his reward is Asuka's love.

With that, the focus changes to Nero's room as it's quite dark. Nero's currently lying on his bed while listening to his music player as he's wearing a sky blue t-shirt and black jeans. His room looks distinctively different in comparison since it only has a closet at the end of his bed while the other end where Nero head's resting is against the wall. The room's door is to Nero's left with enough space in between his bed and it while to his right, there's a wall touching his bed.

Nero says to himself with both of his arms over his head on top of one another as he watches the ceiling with a dull gaze, "I'll be registering into the same school with the others at the end of the week. That means I'll be in the same class with them by next week."

After saying that, Nero casually looks to his left and stares at the door. "I really doubt the others will get use to me being here for a while. I'm actually lucky they don't really question me about why I look so much like Shinji." He then closes his eyes as he turns to his right side to face the wall while holding his hands behind his head. "Now that I think about it, I was right. I knew he wouldn't remember his promise. He was only three back then. Not many people would remember making a promise at such a young age."

After a while, Nero goes to sleep and the day ends. The next day comes, but with an unfortunate incident. Shinji had woken up to find that Asuka has a fever. This surprises him and makes him worry for Asuka's well-being. Shinji then notifies Misato, who had slept alone last night because Kaji had to leave so that he can continue his search for SEELE and Pen-Pen had magically disappeared again. Right now, everyone except Nero, who is the only one that doesn't know Asuka's sick and is still in his room, are at Shinji/Asuka's room.

Nero gets out of his room while yawning with his right hand over his mouth. After putting his hand down, Nero looks towards the left and notices that everyone's gathered at Shinji/Asuka's room. He then thinks to himself with a hint of curiosity brimming, "What the...?"

Then, out of complete randomness, Pen-Pen comes out of Nero's room and stands next to him while letting out a soft squawking yawn. In response, Nero gazes at Pen-Pen out of the corner of his eyes with a bit of confusion being displayed.

Pen-Pen glances at Nero after yawning and then turns his attention forward while waddling towards the kitchen.

Nero continues to be confused as he does a quick double-take between his room and Pen-Pen while thinking, "Why the hell was he in my room?! As a matter of fact, how did he even get in my room?!"

After pondering that for a few seconds while watching the warm-water penguin, Nero brushes off his concern involving Pen-Pen. He then regains his curiosity as he notices Mari due to her currently being the closest to him from everyone who's gathered at Shinji/Asuka's room. Afterwards, he takes a few steps towards her while looking at the room and asks, "What's going on?"

Mari plainly looks at Nero and responds to his question. "It looks like Asuka's sick." She then realizes something and smiles as she looks towards the room with excitement taking over. "This means I won't have to worry about her when I try to spend time with Shinji in class!"

Nero looks at Mari with an expression of disbelief. He then chuckles as he slowly shakes his head with his eyes closed. "I can't believe you." Nero looks at her again afterwards while smiling a little. "The least you can do is be concerned about her a bit. Don't be so happy that she's sick."

Mari looks at Nero with a reassuring smile. "Although I want Shinji to myself, I don't want anything bad to happen to Asuka. I'm just looking on the bright side."

Nero rolls his eyes and looks towards Shinji/Asuka's room. "You're just looking at how it benefits you that Asuka's sick."

Mari giggles while covering her mouth with her left hand and closes her eyes. After doing that, she puts that same hand on her hip while looking at the room. "I'm not going to deny it."

As a result of Mari's words, Nero glances at her with an amused smile and thinks, "At least she kind of admitted it." He then turns his attention back towards the room and listens to the conversation that's being held.

Shinji sits on his bed with Asuka lying on her back as she's breathing heavily while a cold towel is placed on her forehead. Shinji then looks at Misato with worry being displayed. "Misato, I can't just leave her here by herself."

Misato gives Shinji a sympathetic look while her arms are crossed. "I know you're worried about her, but you can't miss school. It's only been about two weeks since you guys have started." Misato then looks at Asuka. "She'll have a reasonable excuse so there won't be any repercussions." She returns her focus to Shinji. "But you won't have a valid excuse for missing school."

Mari walks pass the others and into the room with a smile on her face. "She's right, Shinji." She then lifts up her right index finger and says in a playful way, "You can't be missing school without a valid excuse."

Hikari stands behind Mari while being quite upset by what Mari said as she's to the right of Touji. "You're only saying that because then you can try to steal Shinji away from Asuka!"

Mari looks at Hikari with a nonchalant expression. "I won't steal him from her, but I will do my best to spend as much time with him as possible while she isn't around." She then arrogantly smiles while letting out a soft giggle.

Shinji looks at them for a moment with no real emotion. He then turns his attention back to Misato and says with a pleading tone, "Please, Misato. I don't want her to be alone. It would have been different if you didn't have to go to NERV today, but since you do, please let me stay."

Nero steps into the room, leans against the wall that's to the right of the doorway and says with his arms crossed as his eyes are on Shinji, "I can watch her."

In response, everyone looks at Nero with a bit of surprise brimming. Nero then glances at all of them and afterwards, looks back directly at Shinji. "I'm actually going to be here all day. I won't be joining you guys in school until next week."

Misato makes an expression of realization with her attention on Nero. "That's right! You're supposed to register at the end of the week!"

Shinji looks at Misato while still being a bit surprised and then looks back at Nero with some concern showing. "Are you sure you don't mind watching over her?"

Nero smiles at Shinji. "Don't worry about it." After that, he says with a bit of a smart ass tone, "Like I have anything else to do."

Misato smiles as she nods while uncrossing her arms. "That's great!" She then looks at the others. "Well in that case, we can all get ready to head out."

Aside from Shinji and Nero, the other children nod in response and then start to leave the room to get ready. Before leaving, Mari turns back around and walks up next to Nero. She then whispers into his left ear, "Thanks." She then focuses her attention on the exit and heads out of the room.

Nero gazes towards the direction that Mari left with a mild smile and thinks, "What an interesting girl".

Afterwards, Misato walks out of the room while nodding at Nero with content. In response, Nero looks at Misato and nods back at her. He then watches her leave the room and looks at Shinji while uncrossing his arms. After doing that, Nero walks up next to him while Shinji's looking at Asuka with concern still being noted. Once Nero reaches Shinji, he smiles at him and says with a reassuring tone, "Just relax, Shinji. I promise that I'll take good care of her."

Shinji looks at Nero while smiling at him. "Thank you, Nero." He then remembers something while his eyes widen briefly and suddenly smiles in a nervous way with his eyes veered away from Nero as he scratches the back of his head with his left hand. "And thanks for saving Asuka yesterday."

Nero's a bit surprised by what Shinji said and then smiles contentedly as he turns to face towards the bedroom door. "Don't mention it." He then walks out of the room without another word being said.

Everyone except Nero and obviously Asuka get ready. As soon as they're ready, they leave the apartment. During the time they are gone, Nero takes good care of Asuka by changing the towel that's on her forehead when needed and made sure that nothing bad happens while she's resting. With time going steadily by, it's now about to be noon as Nero's currently in the kitchen while filling up a bucket with cold water from the kitchen's sink.

As Nero does this, he spaces out at first while looking at the bucket's water with cold eyes and sees his reflection. After a little time passes, Nero snaps out of it and turns off the water while saying to himself, "I think after I change her towel, I'll go take a bath."

With that said, Nero picks up the bucket with both hands and carries it to Asuka. Once he reaches her bed, he places the bucket next to it, knees down and grabs onto the folded up towel that's on Asuka's forehead with his left hand. At the same time, he places his right hand next to her head that way he has leverage as he places his forehead against her forehead. This is for him to have a better feel of her temperature while comparing it to his own. As he does that, Nero dunks the towel into the cold water with his eyes closed. He then removes his head, opens his eyes to look at her and places the towel back on her head.

Asuka reacts a little bit to the coldness of the towel, but doesn't wake up and starts to breathe a lot better than she was earlier.

Nero smiles while thinking, "Most of her fever has gone down. Shinji will be super relieved when he gets back." After thinking that, Nero chuckles, stands up and slowly turning around to walk out of the room while leaving the room's door open. He then heads to the bathroom that's in between his room and Asuka/Shinji's room. Once he reaches the bathroom door, he says to himself while entering with a hint of concern taking over, "Should I get my clothes?" He then suddenly chuckles to himself while closing his eyes with his head lowered. "What's the worst that can happen?" With that said, Nero shuts the bathroom door behind him.

After several minutes have gone by since Nero went to the bathroom, Asuka starts to slowly wake up. Once she opens her eyes, she notices that there's a towel on her head. She slowly takes it off, sits up on the bed and looks around the room with a tired expression. She then yawns softly as she gets off the bed and slowly walks out of the room. After that, Asuka stops in the living room to look at her surroundings while being a bit concerned. "Where is everyone?"

Asuka focuses her attention towards the kitchen and walks towards it to look at the microwave that's located next to the refrigerator. She's then a bit surprised to see that it's pass noon while yelling out "Mein Gott! I've been asleep that long?!"

Having said that, Asuka looks around again while calming herself down a bit. "I guess everyone is at school and Misato is at work." She then makes an expression of realization. "Wait a minute!"

With that outburst, Asuka looks towards Nero's room with curiosity arising while quickly composing herself and thinks, "He should still be here. I don't think he's registered into our school yet." She then walks towards Nero's bedroom door and knocks on it twice. After doing that, the 2nd Child waits for a response while being a bit concerned again. "I thought he would be here." She then slides the door open a little bit and looks into the room with curious eyes. "Hello?"

Meanwhile, Nero's still in the bathroom with his entire body submerged under the bathtub's water. His eyes closed with a calm look on his face. Nero then slowly gets out from under the water, sits up and opens his eyes to look at the water while spacing out. Afterwards, Nero says softly while it can be noted that he has a small, circular impression on the middle of his chest that he had gained from a painful experience that occurred not too long ago, "I just remembered that taking care of Asuka reminds me of when Rivka took care of me."

After saying that, Nero chuckles while closing his eyes and tilts his head upward. "How memories seem to randomly come back to a person when they least expect it." He slowly opens his eyes to look at the ceiling and then chuckles again out of realization. "That's something I forgot. For once, I didn't think of how much I hate dealing with a different ceiling." Nero then smirks. "I wonder if it has something to do with..."

Before Nero completed that statement, the focus returns to Asuka, who has just enter Nero's room while leaving the door open. She's now looking around while being a bit impressed and says softly to herself, "It's pretty amazing how he got this room cleaned up. Especially when he did it all by himself." She then sees that Pen-Pen's sleeping on Nero's bed while listening to Nero's music player. This causes her to be a bit stunned with her mouth slightly opened while thinking, "What the hell is Pen-Pen doing in Nero's room?" Asuka then notices out of the corner of her eyes, a drawing on the wall that's on the right side of the room while being a bit far away from the bedroom's door.

Asuka walks up in front of the drawing and looks at it with curiosity taking over. She sees that it's a drawing of a black cross that has a black sun behind it with a black kitten on top of the cross that's looking towards you. Also, there's a white kitten at the bottom of the cross and it's looking up at the black kitten. Asuka then says to herself while being quite impressed, "That's an intense drawing. I wonder if he drew it."

With the completion of that comment, Nero suddenly slides open the bathroom door while having a towel wrapped around his waist. After that, he turns to walk to his room and enters it without thinking about why his door was open or even looking towards the right, which is where Asuka's standing. He then takes off the towel with his right hand and dries his hair with it while looking down at the floor with an indifferent expression. At the same time, Nero closes the door with his left hand while slightly turning his body to the left, which has his back a bit towards Asuka for a brief moment.

Asuka hears the door close while being slightly surprised at the sudden sound. She then looks towards Nero and is immediately in shock when she see's him naked while screaming out with redness quickly taking over her face, "Mein Gott!"

Nero quickly snaps his head to the right to look at Asuka with his eyebrows raised a little while being moderately surprised. "Asuka?"

Asuka hurriedly turns around while dropping her head down with her face still red and screams out, "What are you doing?!"

Nero continues to be a bit surprised while still looking at Asuka's back. He then suddenly starts to laugh while dropping his towel. Afterwards, he tilts his head back with his right hand still on his head and thinks, "Oh my God! When people say that history repeats itself, I didn't think they meant it THAT literally!"

Asuka hears Nero laughing with surprise returning while her eyes have widen greatly. She then gets angry while blushing and tries not to turn around as her hands are clenched into fists. "What's so funny?!"

Nero puts his hand down while walking towards his closet, which is to his left, and smiles with amusement. "I'm not laughing at you or anything like that. This just reminded me of something that once happened to me."

Asuka tries to calm herself down while turning her head to the right to look at Nero. This being a mistake because she ended up seeing that he's still naked and sees for a quick second before turning her head back around in embarrassment that there's a giant mark that's shaped like a cross on Nero's back. After doing that, the red-head blushes again while looking in front of her as her hands are shaking and thinks, "I can't believe I saw him naked again! I should have never come into his room!"

After thinking that, Asuka makes a concerned expression while trying to calm herself a little. She then looks towards her right while not being able to see Nero and says with a nervous tone, "Ummm... What's with... That mark on your back?"

Nero just finished putting on dark, grey jeans while being quite surprised from what Asuka said as he's looking into his closet. Right after that, he smiles and turns to look at Asuka while holding a long-sleeved, dark green shirt in his left hand. "It seems like you took another peek at my body." He then chuckles.

Asuka becomes even more embarrassed while trying not to turn around to look at him. "I didn't mean to!" She then gets a bit irritated while looking at the floor.

Nero chuckles again while putting on his shirt and looks at her with a content smile. "It's alright. Anyway, you can turn around now. I already finished."

Asuka hesitantly turns to look at him and then looks away from Nero by turning her head to the left while turning red a little. "Sorry about being in here without asking you."

Nero walks up to her while still smiling. "It's fine." Once he reaches Asuka, he gives her a curious look with his head slightly tilted to the left. "By the way, why were you in here?"

Asuka looks at Nero with a bit of surprise brimming while the redness of her face disappears. "That's right! I actually came in here because I remembered that you aren't registered into our school yet. I wanted to know what happened." She then makes a slightly concerned expression while putting her right hand on her hip. "Why didn't anyone wake me up to go to school?"

Nero responds with a plain tone. "You were sick, Asuka. You had a fever and it was for the best that you weren't disturbed."

Asuka yells out while being in disbelief, "Really?!"

Nero chuckles due to Asuka's reaction and then briefly makes an expression of realization with his eyes peering up at the ceiling. Afterwards, Nero suddenly gets closer to Asuka with curiosity being noted on his face. "I need to check something. Hold still."

Asuka instantly turns bright red while pulling her head back a little and thinks to herself in a panic, "What's he doing?!"

At the same time, Pen-Pen is still lying on Nero's bed with the music player on and watches Nero get close to Asuka with a plain look being displayed. Nero then gets closer to Asuka, places his right hand on the back of Asuka's head and plants his forehead against her's with his eyes shut. As he does that, Asuka's stunned while blushing quite a bit.

After a couple of seconds, Nero smiles while saying with a calm tone, "Your fever is completely gone." He then lets go of her head, puts his hand down and takes a few steps back while looking at her.

In the meantime, Pen-Pen looks towards the ceiling and continues to listen to music with his eyes closed as Asuka's still a bit stunned for a moment. She then sighs out of relief while placing her right hand on the center of her chest and stops blushing. After doing that, she thinks to herself while looking away from Nero, "Thank goodness. I thought he was going to kiss me or something. I don't know how I would have reacted if he did since he looks so much like Shinji."

Nero becomes a bit concerned while asking, "Something wrong?"

Asuka looks at Nero while lowering her right hand as she's surprised by his sudden concern. She then smiles at him while shaking her head. "I'm fine." After saying that, Asuka realizes something and quickly takes a step towards Nero while smiling at him. "Oh yeah! Thanks for saving my life yesterday! Shinji told me that you went in after me and it's thanks to you, I'm alive!" She then lifts up her right hand next to her face, sticks out her index finger and winks at Nero. "I owe you one!" Having said that, she giggles a little bit and then gives him determined look while putting her hand down. "And be sure, I will definitely pay you back!"

Nero chuckles while tilting his head slightly towards the left. "I look forward to it."

Asuka smiles at him for a moment and then looks at the drawing with curiosity returning as she stopped smiling. "Now that I think about it. What's up with this drawing? Did you draw it?"

Nero looks at the drawing while walking up next to Asuka with a calm demeanor. "I did, but it was different."

Asuka focuses her attention on Nero as her curiosity increases. "What do you mean?"

Nero keeps looking at the drawing. "This is the second version. I lost the original, so I drew this to replace it. The only thing that's different is the white kitten." He then looks at her while smiling a little bit. "It wasn't in the original."

Asuka makes a moderately concerned expression. "Why did you change it?"

Nero turns his attention back to the drawing with content taking over. "Because the old one represented how I felt about the world. My opinion of the world has changed since then, but it hasn't changed that much." He then chuckles a little.

Curiosity returns once again while Asuka glances at the drawing. "So, what does the drawing represent now?"

Nero looks at her while having a sincere smile. "That no matter how terrible the world is and how lonely it may seem, you aren't truly alone. That there's someone nearby who truly does care about you." Having said that, sadness is displayed as Nero turns his attention back to the drawing. "But the obvious thing about this drawing is how far apart the two kittens are from each other. This shows the common fact that there's a huge distance between two individuals and that it's possible they can never reach each other." He then smiles while looking at Asuka again. "Unless you're willing to take a risk on love."

Asuka's completely stunned from what Nero just said as she's looking at him while turning a light shade of red.

Curiosity suddenly takes over Nero's expression after realizing something. "Are you hungry?"

Asuka quickly snaps out of her being stunned and nods at Nero while being very enthusiastic. "Hell yeah! I'm starving!"

Nero laughs while closing his eyes momentarily. He's then about to turn towards the door, but notices Pen-Pen on his bed and becomes a bit confused while thinking, "How long has he been there? And is that my music player he's listening to?" After a couple of seconds, Nero brushes off his concern and turns around to face his door. He then looks at Asuka out of the corner of his left eye with a smile. "I'll cook something up for us to eat." Having said that, he looks towards the door again and walks out of the room.

Asuka makes a surprised expression as she follows him. "You can cook, too?!"

Nero walks to the kitchen sink while glancing at Asuka as he continues to smile. "Yeah. I'm guessing you said that because Shinji cooks, huh?"

Asuka's eyes widen as she stops near the kitchen table. She then puts her right hand in front of her mouth, looks down and thinks, "Damn it! I just compared him to Shinji by accident!"

Nero turns to face Asuka and sees her reaction with an indifferent look. He then chuckles softly while putting his right hand in his pocket. "Don't worry about accidentally comparing me to him. Just try not to do it on purpose. It does bother me a little. Alright?" After saying that, Nero tilts his head to the right while smiling at her.

Asuka looks at Nero while being quite surprised for a moment. After that, she puts her hand down that was covering her mouth as she smiles at him and nods. "I'll do my best."

Nero turns around and begins to rinse out the pots and pans so that he can start cooking soon. "You know Shinji was worried about you."

Asuka smiles while being content about what she just heard. "Well, I am his girlfriend. I shouldn't be surprised that he was worried." She then looks towards the right and says, "And even if we weren't together, he would still be worried about me."

Nero places the pots and pans on top of the stove with a calm demeanor. "I totally agree." He then glances at her out of the corner of his right eye. "He would have stayed, but it was best that he didn't miss school. And when I volunteered to take care of you, it put him at ease about not being able to stay here with you."

Asuka looks at Nero again while still smiling. "I guess, I'll have to thank you for that too."

Nero turns his attention back to the stove while closing his eyes briefly. "Don't worry about it." He then opens his eyes to look at her again with his body still facing towards the stove. "Do you want me to make you a hamburger?"

Asuka's jaw drops while being very surprised by what she just heard. She then bends forward slightly and yells out in disbelief, "You can make hamburgers?!"

Nero chuckles while being a bit amazed at her reaction. "Of course. It isn't really that hard to make."

Asuka's consumed with excitement as she yells out, "That's great! I haven't had a hamburger for such a long time!"

Nero smiles while turning his attention back to the stove. "Then hamburgers it is."

As Nero makes the hamburgers and Asuka watches him due to her not thinking of doing anything else aside from waiting for her food, the focus has been changed to Gendo's office. Gendo had summoned Misato since he had a feeling that she would have something to say to him. Once Misato arrives, the conversation between her and Gendo commences while Fuyutsuki is there to listen.

Misato has an upset expression as she yells out while taking a step towards Gendo's desk, "What do you mean, 'You have nothing to tell'?"

Gendo sits at his desk in his usual pose while looking at her with no emotion being displayed. "It's as I said. There's nothing about Nero in specific that is needed to be known."

Misato gets irritated while grinding her teeth. She then breathes in deeply with her eyes closed in the attempt to calm herself down. After that, she looks at Gendo with serious eyes. "Can you at least tell me why he looks so much like Shinji. They could pass off as twins."

Fuyutsuki stands next to Gendo as he's surprised by what Misato said since he hasn't seen Nero yet. He then looks at Gendo with concern brimming and thinks, "The new pilot looks so much like Shinji that he can be his twin?! That's impossible! Yui didn't have twins!"

Gendo gets very serious, places his hands on his desk and stands up with his hands still on the desk. "There is such a thing as two people looking alike and not being related. That's what this is."

Misato makes a skeptical expression while tilting her head slightly to the right. "That can't be. It's too much of a coincidence that they both look-alike and be chosen children."

Fuyutsuki gives Misato a serious look while thinking, "She's right. For them both to look-alike and be pilots is too much of a coincidence."

Gendo narrows his eyes though this can't really be seen due to his glasses while still fixated on Misato. "Believe me when I say, they aren't related."

Misato crosses her arms with an intense glare towards Gendo. "I'll consider that to be the truth, but first I have to ask you something."

Gendo has a hint of curiosity showing as he straightens his posture with his hands behind his back. "What?"

Misato takes a deep breath while looking downward. After a few seconds, she looks at Gendo again and says with a firm tone, "Is Nero a clone?"

Fuyutsuki's completely surprised while pulling his body back a little. He then looks at Gendo as he waits for his response. As Fuyutsuki looks at him, Gendo's just staring at Misato with a slightly irritated expression. Misato then continues to state, "The reason I ask that is because I can't really accept Nero looking like Shinji being a coincidence. After the whole incident with the clones of Rei, Kaji had that thought of you possibly making a clone of Shinji. I was hoping it wasn't anything as extreme as that, but if you're telling me to believe that they aren't related, I need to know if he's a clone or not."

Gendo looks away from Misato with seriousness being noted. "Colonel. Just think about what you are asking me. Why would I make a clone of Shinji when my relationship with him wasn't even a good one? Also, I already had Rei, so for what possible purpose can you think of, I would want to make a clone of Shinji."

Misato makes a surprised expression as she thinks to herself while being a bit embarrassed, "Damn! He's right! Why would he make a clone of Shinji when he already had Rei! He even favored her during most of the time that Shinji's been here!" With that thought completed, Misato looks down at the floor and says with an apologetic tone, "You're absolutely right, Commander. I'm sorry for not trusting you."

Gendo calmly looks at her out of the corner of his eyes. "It's alright. Now, are you satisfied with the information I've given you?"

Misato straightens her head's posture to look at Gendo and nods with seriousness returning briefly. She then becomes a bit concerned after realizing something. "By the way, I don't have Nero's file. I tried to search for any information about him, but I couldn't find anything."

Gendo looks directly at her without changing his expression. "That's because his file was lost. If you want to know anything about him, you'll just have to ask him."

Misato's surprised once again while saying with a loud tone. "Really?! What about the information about his parents?!"

Gendo responds calmly. "All information was lost after the 3rd Impact, although there wasn't much to begin with. His parents had died when he was an infant. Documentation of both his parents and himself were scarce."

Misato's consumed with sadness as she looks away from Gendo and thinks to herself, "So he has no parents and he's all alone. How sad." She then looks at Gendo with determination taking over and says, "Then I'll be sure to make him feel at home!"

After sitting back down, Gendo nods at Misato and gets into his pose while saying, "You're dismissed."

Misato nods back at him and then exits the room. As she leaves, she thinks to herself with her eyes focused on the floor, "Even though I didn't get anywhere with him, I actually feel a bit at ease." She then looks in front of her while being a bit content.

Gendo watches Misato leave. He then looks at Fuyutsuki with a cold expression. "I know you have something to say."

Fuyutsuki returns Gendo's look with seriousness showing. "All I have to say is that Yui never ONCE mentioned having another son. I have no doubts about what you said."

Gendo smiles as he nods at Fuyutsuki. He then looks away from him and thinks about the past with his eyes closed.

*Flashback: June 6, 2001*

The memory starts off in a hospital room. Yui's in a hospital bed while slowly going into labor. Gendo is on her right while holding her right hand with his left hand as he's trying to get her through the labor pains. The doctor is a man and he's getting ready to help with the child's birth while he's accompanied by a nurse. Their faces can't be seen. *But that doesn't really matter* Gendo looks a bit younger in this scene while Yui's wearing a light blue hospital gown. Gendo is wearing a white long-sleeved, button shirt that's unbuttoned on the firts two buttons and he has khaki pants on.

Yui looks at Gendo with pain being noted on her face. "You're confident about the name, right?"

Gendo smiles at her while nodding with confidence. "Yes... Like I said before, if it's a boy, Shinji. If it's a girl, Rei."

Yui smiles at him while still being in pain. "Shinji and Rei... What beautiful names..."

The doctor walks up in front of Yui's bed with composed demeanor. "It's time to start."

Both Yui and Gendo look at him and nod in response. The doctor then starts to go through the procedure while saying with a calm tone, "Alright, Mrs. Ikari. I need you to push." With those words, Yui makes multiple pushes while being in a lot of pain and yelling out from time to time. As she does that, Gendo doesn't let go of her hand with worry resonating within his eyes as he watches Yui go through her pain.

After some time has passed, the doctor manages to pull out the baby and he's a bit surprised to see that the baby isn't crying. He briefly ignores it though as he cuts the umbilical cord and then realizes that the baby is breathing easily so this eases his worries. After that, the doctor looks up at Yui and Gendo with a smile. "It's a boy."

Gendo has a happy expression as he walks up to the doctor. "That's wonderful." The doctor then hands the baby to the nurse and turns his attention to Gendo.

The nurse takes the baby to the side and quickly cleans it up. She then wraps it up in a small blanket and carries the baby to Gendo. "Here you go, sir."

Gendo smiles, grabs onto the baby and looks at his child with a pleased smile. "Welcome to the world, my son." Yui then suddenly starts screaming out in pain again. This surprises Gendo as he snaps his head to look towards Yui. "What's wrong?!"

The doctor looks into Yui's private area and makes a shocked expression. "How's this possible?! There's..."

Gendo's stunned as he hears a baby suddenly cry. The doctor then slowly pulls out another baby as everyone soon hears the baby crying. The doctor quickly cuts the umbilical cord and hands the baby to the nurse while still being amazed as he looks at Gendo. "I don't know how, but you have twins."

Gendo's in disbelief as he takes a step towards the doctor. "How can this be?! You told us that she was only going to have one child!"

Curiosity can be seen on the doctor's face as he looks away from Gendo. "Well, there are rare cases that the twins are so close together they look like one instead of two. Either way, we should have been able to detect two separate heart-beats." He then looks at Gendo with a bit of calmness brimming. "The one that came out first is most likely the one we have been seeing."

After saying that, the doctor smiles and says with a bit of optimism, "In a way, you can think of it as him protecting his little brother by shielding him and being the first one to come out to the world." Having said that, he looks at the baby and then is completely surprised while saying, "Oh my God!"

Gendo makes a concerned expression while looking down and is surprised when he sees that the baby has his eyes opened. Not only that, the baby is also looking right at his father with a faint smile as Gendo hurriefly looks at Yui with astonishment showing. "Yui, he's looking right at me."

Yui's surprised for a moment after hearing what Gendo said. She then suddenly smiles at him with joy radiating from her face. Gendo then chuckles and looks at the baby. "You sure are amazing, Shinji."

After hearing Gendo's words, Yui suddenly shows a bit of concern while saying with a weak tone, "Gendo..."

Gendo looks at her with a curiosity being displayed. "What is it, Yui?"

Yui genuinely smiles at him. "That name doesn't suit him."

Gendo becomes quite confused due to Yui's statement. "What do you mean?"

Yui looks away from him for a moment while still smiling. She then looks at Gendo again while trying to hold back tears of joy. "I want him to be named Nero."

Gendo's a bit dumbfounded by Yui's words while asking, "But why would we name him Nero? He came out first." He then looks back down at the baby in his arms with a hint of confusion. "Anyway, I don't understand why you think the name Shinji doesn't suit him."

Yui reaches out towards Gendo with her right hand. "I know, my love. But Nero has been a name I always have liked." After saying that, she looks at the baby while putting her hand down. "I believe it suits him since Nero stands for strength." She then looks back at Gendo. "Shinji needs to have a strong, older brother to watch over him."

Gendo has a bit of a stunned expression for a moment and then sincerely smiles at her. "Alright, Yui." He then thinks to himself as he looks towards the ceiling, "Although to be exact, Nero stands for powerful, but it still suits him, I guess." Afterwards, Gendo looks at Nero while still smiling.

In response to his father looking at him, Nero giggles while looking back at him. Gendo then continues to think while spacing out, "I just hope, I'm a good father to both you and Shinji."

*End Of Flashback*

Gendo slowly opens his eyes with sadness filling them. He then looks down at his desk while thinking, "Too bad I turned out to be the exact opposite of what I was hoping. I really am pathetic."

The scene ends and some time goes by. Nero had made the hamburgers for himself and Asuka. Once they ate their hamburger, Nero went to his room and stayed there for the rest of the day. Asuka spent most of the time in the living room until Shinji and the other children had returned from school. Shinji was happy to see Asuka feeling better and had shared a warm embrace. Although Asuka was happy to be in Shinji's arms, she was still a little bit worried about what attempts Mari made while she wasn't around. Fortunately for her, Shinji reassured her that nothing extreme happened and that Mari actually didn't try anything too out of line through out the day. All the children except Nero spent time together until Misato got home and was also happy to see Asuka better.

As they have their moment together, Nero's lying on his bed while being in the darkness of his room with Pen-Pen sleeping to his left in an outstretched position. Nero stares at the ceiling with a spaced out expression as his hands are behind his head. "I feel like such an idiot. I told myself not to become accustomed to living here or interact that much with the others, and yet, I did the exact opposite." He then shakes his head in disapproval while closing his eyes. He then suddenly laughs to himself. "Nothing I can do about that now."

After a little time passes by, Nero slowly opens his eyes and says softly to himself, "I actually didn't mind taking care of Asuka. I'm already on good terms with both her and Shinji." He then glances towards the door, which is too his left. "And I guess I'm on good terms with Mari, but I think Touji doesn't really like me for the obvious reason." After saying that, Nero chuckles and closes his eyes again. "I wonder what else will happen while I live here."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

I liked writing this episode quite a bit. I decided to reveal who Nero really is to all of you since you all most likely already read my 2nd Branch story. This episode also probably answered some of your questions about Nero, but I'm not too sure. I hope you all enjoyed this episode and look forward to the next one.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	11. Episode 11

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

At this moment, I'll be taking my time with this episode since I have other things to do. I need to get myself fixed with my time of going to sleep. I had spent so many hours writing my episodes that I have been having a huge lack of sleep and it's about time I start taking it easy. I forgot to address the fact I made the same thing that happen between Nero and Rivka in my 2nd Branch Story happen in this story between Nero and Asuka. I wanted to add an awkward moment that would feel like deja vu for Nero. I hope you all enjoyed the repetition of that and hopefully enjoy this episode as well. Neon Genesis Evangelion belongs to Anno and I would seriously love to meet him while hopefully being able to talk to him about Eva.

Episode 11: The Difference Between Them

Since the day Nero took care of Asuka, the school week quickly went by. The children are currently at NERV as they're about to take their synchronization test. Although, Nero will have to wait until the others finish their test first so he can take the test. This is due to Touji taking the test in Unit 03's entry plug first, which is obviously because of Nero's position of being the possible replacement, and in a way, this is Touji's last chance to prove he can still pilot. As the test begins, Misato, Nero and the rest of NERV's personnel are in the viewing room while watching the other children's progress.

Misato stares at the large plexiglas that shows the pilots' entry plugs for a moment and then looks towards Maya with seriousness showing. "How's it going?"

Maya looks at the screen that's in front of her, which shows the individual pilots in their entry plug, with a bit of amazement. "You won't believe this, but Mari and Asuka actually have the same synchronization. They're both at 95%."

Misato's eyes widen while being a bit surprised. "Really?! That's very rare!" She turns her attention to the entry plugs while thinking with a plain expression, "The last time any of the pilots had the same synchronization was when I had Shinji and Asuka work together to be in sync for the fight against the 7th Angel."

Nero walks up next to Misato with his arms crossed. Curiosity can be seen on his person as he's looking at the entry plugs. Nero's wearing a plugsuit that's completely black while the number "03" that's on the upper part of the plugsuit's chest is white. Also, his plugsuit is similar in appearance to the pink plugsuit that Mari wore, but instead of having round orbs on the chest area that's below the number and on the hands, he has crosses that are gem-like. "That's interesting. For those two to have the same sync ratio while they don't like each other is very ironic." Nero then smiles while holding back the urge to laugh.

Misato nods in agreement while still focused on the entry plugs. "Yeah... If only they would put their differences aside, they could work well together." She then becomes quite concerned as she looks at Maya again. "How's Touji?"

Maya turns her head to the right to look at Misato with sadness showing. "He hasn't been able to establish synchronization, Colonel."

Misato's consumed with sadness as she looks at the entry plugs again and mumbles to herself, "Poor, Touji."

Nero stares at the entry plugs with an indifferent look while thinking, "He must feel like crap right now, but nothing can be done when an Eva rejects its pilot."

Touji continues to sit in Unit 03's entry plug with irritation brimming as he's looking downward. "Dammit! I still can't sync with it!" He then peers at the ceiling. "But why?! Nero was able to make it work! So why can't I do it?!"

Ritsuko stands on Maya's left while looking at her screen that shows Touji's sync ratio and then thinks to herself with seriousness emitting from her, "It's no use. This is the third time he's unable to sync with Unit 03, and from what Misato told me, Nero was able to synchronize with the Eva while being configured to Touji." She turns to look at Nero with some concern brimming and thinks, "I'm still surprised by how much he looks like Shinji. But if they aren't related, can we really leave it at being just a coincidence?"

Nero places his hands behind his head and looks at Misato out of the corner of his eyes. "It's unfortunate about Touji's current situation."

Misato briefly glances at Nero and then looks back at the entry plugs. "Yeah... But we have to accept it. Touji can't pilot Unit 03 anymore" She then sighs with her eyes closed while dropping her head down.

Nero suddenly turns around and starts to walk towards the exit. "Time's almost up. I'll head over there now."

Misato watches Nero walk away with a bit of suspicion showing as she thinks to herself, "I don't know how he would know when the synchronization test will be over." She then relaxes her expression while thinking, "But that doesn't really matter. He's probably impatient about having to wait for Touji to finish."

Having finished that thought, Misato looks up at the entry plugs and says in a stern tone, "I assume the test is just about done, correct?"

Hyuga turns his chair to the left to look at Misato with a moderately serious expression. "Actually, yes. They just finished."

Misato nods while maintaining her focus on the entry plugs. "Alright." She then says with a commanding tone towards the children, "The test is over, guys! You can get out and head to the changing room! We'll give out the results as soon as all of you get over here!"

Having heard what Misato said, Touji clenches his fists while being extremely upset as he's looking down. He then says under his breath, "Shit! How useless can I be?! I know Misato won't let me pilot now and that damn Nero's gonna replace me!"

Suddenly, Unit 03's entry plug opens up and Touji's immediately surprised when he sees that Nero's already in front of the entry plug. Standing on the pathway that leads out of the cage while Nero currently has his arms crossed. At the same time, he's smiling at Touji with his head tilted slightly to the left. Nero's demeanor causes Touji to become very irritated as he gets up from the seat. After doing that, he gets out of the entry plug and stands right in front of Nero while glaring at him.

Right after that, Hikari also gets out of her entry plug and heads towards Touji. She then stops and stands at a small distance away from Nero and Touji while looking at them with concern. Meanwhile, Touji continues to be irritated a little bit longer and then closes his eyes as he turns away from Nero. He then starts to walk towards Hikari while saying to Nero without looking at him, "Don't get cocky just 'cause I can't sync up with my Eva."

Nero gives off a plain look as he straightens his head's posture. At the same time, he follows Touji's movements out of the corner of his eyes and says with a cold tone, "Do you really think Unit 03 belongs to you?"

Touji suddenly stops walking while being quite shocked by Nero's words. He's then filled with rage as he turns around to look at Nero and yells out, "What was that?!"

Nero chuckles lightly and says afterwards with a bland tone while losing his smile, "Like I need to repeat myself."

Touji walks up in front of Nero and puts his face extremely close to Nero's face while still being enraged. "Well maybe ya should, and ya better say somethin' other than what I thought I heard! 'Cause ya don't want to piss me off!" Nero smiles in response while slowly walking pass Touji and heads towards the entry plug. Touji then turns to look at Nero and yells out, "Hey! Where do ya think you're going?!"

Nero effortlessly gets into the entry plug and calmly looks at Touji as he stands on the seat. "You have to accept it, Touji. You aren't fit to pilot this Eva anymore."

As a result of what Nero just said, Touji's stunned on as he takes a step back. Nero then says with no real emotion, "I know it will be hard for you to accept it, especially when thoughts like, 'I'm useless' or 'I won't be able to protect anyone' will be going through your mind as you see everyone fighting and you aren't able to do anything to help." Afterwards, Nero sincerely smiles while saying, "But I assure you that I will do everything I can to protect the others." He then glances at Hikari for a moment and looks back at Touji. "And I will make sure Hikari's safe."

Touji continues to be stunned for a little bit longer. After a few seconds pass by, he becomes quite annoyed while closing his eyes and turns his head away from Nero. "Whatever." He then slowly opens his eyes and looks away from Nero with sadness showing on his face. "But if ya promise me that ya will protect them... Then I'm alright with ya takin' my place."

Nero lowers his head to look at the seat with dullness resonating within his eyes. After that, he smiles with his eyes closed for a moment to take a deep breath and opens them to look at Touji. "I will protect them."

Touji looks at Nero with a confident smile and nods. "You better!"

Hikari smiles as she lets out a short sigh with her eyes closed and thinks, "I'm so glad."

Touji looks at Hikari while still smiling. "Let's go, Hikari."

Hikari nods at Touji with a content smile while her eyes gleam brightly. "Okay, Suzuhara."

Nero watches both Hikari and Touji leave. He then sits down on the seat while the entry plug closes. After the plug closes, Nero makes a somber expression, looks downward and whispers to himself, "I really am a terrible person."

Misato's voice comes through the intercom and says with a calm tone, "Nero. The test will take a little bit to start since we have to configure Unit 03's plug to your mentality."

Nero responds with an emotionless tone. "Alright."

Concern can be seen on Misato's face as she looks at the entry plug from the viewing room and thinks, "The way he just responded sounded so empty. I wonder what happened."

Nero slowly closes his eyes with no real emotion being displayed. He then lowers his head as he thinks to himself, "Asuka and Mari's sync ratio is 95%. From what I've read, Shinji's sync ratio is normally the highest." He then smiles contentedly. "Then I know what to do when the test starts."

Misato looks at Aoba with a hint of curiosity being displayed. "Is the plug ready?"

Aoba nods while looking at his screen and responds with a composed tone. "It just finished being configured. Shall we start the test?"

Misato smiles while walking towards Maya and stands on her right. She then leans forward to look at the screen that shows Nero's image. "Let's begin."

After starting the test, Maya suddenly makes a surprised expression while saying in disbelief, "Good lord! I can't believe these readings!"

At the same time, Misato's stunned due to her not being able to believe what she's seeing on Maya's screen. Ritsuko then walks up to Maya's other side with concern as she looks at both Maya and Misato. "What is it?"

In response, Maya looks at Ritsuko while still being quite surprised. "Nero's synchronization is at 96%!"

Ritsuko quickly leans towards Maya and responds with a surprised tone. "Already?! But we just started the test! How could he have jumped up to that sync ratio so quickly?!"

Misato straightens her posture while looking down at the floor with seriousness being displayed and thinks to herself, "It usually takes the pilots a lot longer to sinc like that." With that thought, Misato looks at Maya's screen that's still showing Nero's image with a hint of concern while thinking, "He's highly gifted if you consider that he defeated an enemy with an Eva we were having trouble with for a while and wasn't even configured to his mentality."

Maya has a concerned expression as she's looking at her screen. "This is odd. There's no sign of increase in the synchronization, and yet, he was able to sync that high within an instant."

Ritsuko looks up at the entry plug of Unit 03 with serious eyes and thinks to herself, "He beat Asuka and Mari by 1%. Is it possible that he did that on purpose?" She then looks towards her left while thinking with a hint of doubt, "No. For a person to be able to control how much they sync with an Eva out of their own free will is impossible. Although, it could be possible if there's a strong focus in controlling synchronization like when Shinji and Asuka synchronized to each other. But they had to go through a lot to barely achieve the same synchronization, and without continuous practice, it can't be achieved."

Maya looks at Misato with a bit of concern. "Should we stop the test? It looks like his synchronization won't be going any higher."

Misato looks up at the entry plug and says with an uncertain tone, "I guess so." She then says with a stern tone, "Nero. You're done for today."

Nero continues to smile as he slowly opens his eyes. "Got it." After saying that, he lets go of the controls and looks at his hands while holding them up in front of himself. A somber look then takes over as he slowly opens and closes his hands. "They're most likely surprised at how fast that was." Nero chuckles while closing his hands and puts them down. Afterwards, he looks upward with a calm composure and says softly, "I'll be your pilot from now on, Unit 03. So hopefully you'll reveal everything you have to me soon."

As Nero finished the test, the other children have just arrived in Central Dogma while still having their plugsuits on. The couples stand in pairs except for Asuka and Shinji, who have Mari standing to the right of Shinji for the obvious reason. Misato then turns to look at them and sadness is quickly displayed as she sees Touji.

Touji notices Misato's expression and gives her a confident smile with his right hand's thumb pointed at himself. "Don't ya worry about me, Misato! I'm not angry or anythin'!"

Misato's a bit surprised at first due to Touji's statement. She then smiles at him and says with a pleased tone, "That's good." Misato then turns to look at Ritsuko. "Give them their score."

Ritsuko nods at Misato and then calmly looks at the pilots while her hands are in her coat pockets. "Alright. The scores are as follows."

Rei becomes a bit concerned while asking Ritsuko, "But don't we need to wait for Nero to finish?"

Ritsuko looks at Rei with a plain expression. "He already finished."

Kensuke's very surprised while standing on Rei's left. "Really?! That was fast!"

Misato faintly smiles while nodding at the children. "Indeed."

Ritsuko clears her throat as she's looking at the children. "Now listen up for your results. Coming in first is Shinji with a synchronization of 98%."

Asuka smiles with her attention towards Shinji. "First again, huh?" She then giggles while Shinji blushes a little bit and looks towards his left, which is where Asuka is standing, and laughs in a nervous way.

Mari wraps her arms around Shinji's right arm with excitement brimming. "Always being the great Shinji, huh?"

Shinji's surprised at Mari's sudden closeness and looks at her while being a bit nervous. "Uh..."

Asuka becomes upset due to Mari's actions and yells at her while pointing at her with her right hand as her left hand is on her hip, "Get your disgusting paws off him!"

Mari looks at Asuka and quickly sticks out her tongue in a playful manner. "Make me."

Misato makes an irritated expression while yelling out in a commanding tone, "Knock it off and let Dr. Akagi finish giving out the scores!"

In response, Asuka and Mari stop arguing as they quickly turn their attention back towards Ritsuko while straightening their postures. Ritsuko then looks at all of them while maintaining her composure. "Alright. Coming in second is Nero with a synchronization of 96%." As a result of hearing that Nero has the second highest sync ratio, the children are all surprised.

"At 95%... We have a tie between Asuka and Mari," says Ritsuko while bracing herself for the most logical reaction from the two girls' names she just said.

Asuka yells out in disbelief while also confirming Ritsuko's theory, "What?! There's no way!" She then points at Mari with her left hand while looking at Ritsuko and Misato. "How the hell did I tie with her?!"

Mari giggles while still holding onto Shinji's arm. "That's what I would like to know. It makes no sense we tied when I'm obviously better."

Asuka becomes very annoyed while putting her hand down and glares at Mari. "Yeah right! You don't even hold a candle to my greatness!"

Shinji chuckles while watching Asuka and thinks to himself, "Now that's the Asuka I remember."

Ritsuko has a slightly annoyed expression as she watches the children. She then calms herself, closes her eyes for a moment and looks at them. "Next up is Rei with 88%, Kensuke with 74% and Hikari with 57%." After saying that, Ritsuko looks at Touji with a hint of sadness taking over. "I don't need to tell you what you got, right?"

Touji gets a bit irritated while looking away from Ritsuko. "Definitely! I already know I'm in no condition to pilot anymore!" He then looks at Misato with confidence radiating. "That's why I have accepted Nero as my replacement! But he better not let anyone get hurt because if he does, I'll make him pay!" Touji smiles after saying that last part.

Misato smiles out of relief. "I'm sure he'll do his best not to disappoint you." Her eyes then widen while realizing something and starts to look around with a bit of concern. "Where is Nero? It doesn't take that long to get back from the testing room." She puts her right hand on her chin while looking upward with curiosity brimming and says softly, "He still doesn't know what he got on the sync test."

The scene suddenly changes to focus on Nero, who's in the boys' changing room as he's taking a bath.

Nero's currently staring at the ceiling with his left arm placed in front of his forehead while lying down in the bath tub with a spaced out expression. "I made my sync ratio to be 96%, which beats Asuka and Mari's synchronization, and puts me a couple of points behind Shinji's sync." He then smirks. "That's good for right now. I'll let Shinji be first since these tests don't mean a thing to me."

After saying that, Nero suddenly hears the emergency alarm go off, and in response, he casually turns his head to the left with a plain look on his face. "I wonder who that could be." He then slowly smiles to himself while displaying a small amount of excitement.

With that, the focus changes to Central Dogma's personnel as they're all concerned about the alarm going off. At the same time, Misato, Touji and the main NERV staff have just arrived in Central Dogma.

Irritation can be seen on Misato's person as she stands in her usual spot and watches the main screen. "Are you freaking serious?! Another attack?!"

Hyuga sits at his post while typing and looking at his screen. "Yeah and this one is intense! It's been determined that there are FOUR enemy Evas!"

Misato panics quite a bit as she looks towards Hyuga. "What?!" She then becomes quite serious as she looks up at the main screen again. "So SEELE decided to add one more to this attack! I hope they don't continue to add more Evas to each attack! We were already having a hard time with fighting three of those damn bastards!"

Maya suddenly cuts in with a calm tone while looking at her screen. "All pilots except the 7th Child have made it to the cage. They're waiting to be prepped up."

Touji stands next to Misato and looks at her with annoyance. "What the heck is he doin'?! Why ain't he there with the others?!"

Misato looks at him with a calm expression. "I don't know, but hopefully he gets over to the cage to join the others soon."

Aoba turns to look at Misato with seriousness showing. "Colonel. It seems that each enemy Eva is in a different part of the city. They showed up so suddenly, we couldn't retract many of the buildings. So we'll be suffering quite a bit of damage this time."

Misato looks at Aoba with intensity. "That's definitely not good considering all the hard work we put into rebuilding the city." She then looks at the main screen while thinking, "It's also a pain that the Commander and Fuyutsuki aren't here either. I'm going to have to take full responsibility on any damages, but as long as we beat SEELE, there's no real problem."

Hyuga looks at Misato by turning his head to the left and says with a hint of urgency in his voice, "The pilots are ready!"

Misato looks at him with some concern showing. "What about Nero?"

In response to Misato's question, Hyuga shakes his head in disappointment. This causes Misato to be slightly irritated momentarily while gritting her teeth lightly. After doing that, she looks up at the main screen with a composed expression. "I guess he'll just have to join them when he shows up." She then says with a commanding tone, "Since it's currently six against four, send Unit 01 and 02 together to face an enemy! They're use to working with each other! Also, keep Unit 04 and the Extra Eva together since their pilots will need each other to fight against an enemy Eva. Finally, send Unit 00 and 05 to their own individual enemy! Rei and Mari should be able to handle it!"

Touji smiles at Misato and thinks, "Thank you, Misato." He then turns his attention back towards the main screen with content.

Maya makes a serious expression while maintaining her focus on her screen. "Units 00, 01 and 02 have been launched! Unit 04 and Extra Eva will be sent out in a couple of minutes!"

Misato watches the main screen with a composed posture as she thinks to herself, "Good luck, you guys."

Asuka and Shinji have been sent to the east part of the city. After reaching the designated area, Asuka's consumed with anger when she sees the enemy in front of her. "You have to be kidding me?!"

Dummy Eva 10 is fixated on Unit 02 while holding a red Katana-like sword in its left hand. The appearance of this Eva looks exactly like the original Unit 02 prior to 3rd Impact. It's even the same color, which is why Asuka's angry. Asuka then yells out in anger while tightening her grip on the controls and leaning forward, "If those idiots think I'll have trouble fighting it just because it reminds me of my Eva, they have another thing coming!"

Shinji looks at Unit 02 after hearing what Asuka just said with sadness. He then becomes a bit angry while looking towards the enemy and says softly to himself, "SEELE's going to pay for doing that! How could they ever even think of doing this to Asuka?!"

Misato thinks to herself with a hint of annoyance brimming, "Are they trying to play mind games by making their Eva look like Unit 02's former appearance?" She then looks towards the side and mumbles to herself, "And what luck. Asuka ended up facing it." With that said, Misato turns her attention towards the others in Central Dogma and says with a commanding tone, "Let's see what the other enemy Evas look like!"

Due to Misato's request, Dummy Eva 11's revealed to the NERV team while it hasn't moved from where it's located, which is the south part of the city, as it's looking around the area. This Eva has a tank-like lower half as its head has multiple spikes on it and its body is heavily plated with armor. Dummy Eva 11 holds a giant black scythe in its right hand while it's the color beige with some white stripes on its arms

After seeing Dummy Eva 11, concern is noted on Misato's face as she crosses her arms. "That thing looks menacing. Who did we send to that area?"

To answer her question, the main screen suddenly reveals that Unit 00 is the Eva to face Dummy Eva 11. Rei's staring the enemy Eva down with piercing eyes as she thinks to herself, "The only way we have beaten the enemy so far has been close distance. But with that weapon in its possession, it will be quite difficult to get close."

In the meantime, Misato suddenly says with a commanding tone towards Dogma's personnel while still looking at the main screen, "Now, show us Unit 04 and Extra Eva's position." Soon enough, the image on the main screen changes and shows that Unit 04 and Extra Eva have already started fighting against the enemy Eva, which they are fighting in the west side of the city. This causes Misato to be surprised as she takes a couple of steps forward while uncrossing her arms. "They're already fighting?!"

The enemy Eva that Kensuke and Hikari are facing is Dummy Eva 12, which stands on two legs while having the same head that Dummy Eva 11 has. It's the color light green with black stripes running across its body. Oddly enough, this Eva doesn't have a weapon, but there's a specific reason why that currently can't be seen. Dummy Eva 12 is now dashing towards Unit 04 and it's about to come into contact with it.

Kensuke quickly makes Unit 04 pull back in the attempt to gain distance from the enemy while deploying his Eva's A.T. Field. As he does this, Kensuke's a bit scared while thinking to himself, "That damn thing doesn't give a person a break, does it?!"

Once it reaches Unit 04, Dummy Eva 12 strikes the A.T. Field with its right hand. Kensuke then smiles when he sees that Unit 04's A.T. Field is holding up against the enemy and yells out happily, "Perfect! I'm able to withstand its attack!" He then pulls his right hand close to himself with it clenched while being very proud. "I'm improving!"

Dummy Eva 12 looks directly at Unit 04 as its right arm suddenly has an antenna-like figure come out from each side of the arm and form a cross. The antennas then start to conduct electricity between the four of them as parts of the Eva's arm open up. Suddenly, a loud noise is produced and a powerful force of sound-waves quickly comes into contact with Unit 04's A.T. Field, which causes it to immediately shatter.

Kensuke's in shock as the sound-wave continues towards Unit 04 and hits it. This causes it to be sent flying backwards with pieces of the Eva's plated armor coming off. As Unit 04's sent flying through the air, Kensuke screams out in pain while Hikari has her Eva a bit of a distance away from both Unit 04 and the enemy Eva as she watches Unit 04 sent flying with horror. Unit 04's back then crashes into the ground and this results in Kensuke being a bit shook up from the impact of the crash. Afterwards, Kensuke tries his best to regain some of his composure while looking towards the enemy with pain still lingering. "What... Was that?"

Misato looks towards Ritsuko with surprise. "What just happened?! What was that?!"

Ritsuko looks up at the main screen with an expression of disbelief while holding her laptop with both hands. "That was..."

The focus suddenly turns to Nero as he stands in front of Unit 03, wearing his plugsuit and watching a giant display screen that's located in the west part of the cage. He had just witnessed what happened to Unit 04 with no real emotion being displayed and tilts his head slightly towards the left. "Crusher System." He then pauses for a moment as he turns his attention to look at Unit 03 and smiles. "Never thought SEELE would use it."

Meanwhile, Misato walks up to Ritsuko with stress being noted on her face. "Crusher System?! I've never heard of such a thing!"

Ritsuko gives Misato a serious look. "I'm not surprised. The Crusher System was highly experimental. It was never meant to be brought up in conversation unless completed." After saying that, she looks back at the main screen and says, "I doubt SEELE was able to get it completed, but that wouldn't stop them from using it."

Misato's filled with concern as she asks, "Why is that? What exactly does the Crusher System do?"

Ritsuko looks at Misato again. "It uses sound as a weapon. The sound-waves it creates are so intense that a shock-wave is made. With that, it can easily break through an A.T. Field. It was specifically made to be installed into the Evas and to be used against the angels... But unfortunately, it was highly unstable to be used." She then looks back at the main screen. "It overheats too quickly and if used too much, it would cause electrical interference with the Eva that uses it. The potential of putting the pilots in a vulnerable position was too high. As a result, the idea to use it was put aside until we find a solution to the problem."

Misato responds to Ritsuko's statement with concern still being noted. "But if you said SEELE probably haven't fixed the problem, why are they using it?!"

Ritsuko says firmly, "Remember, Katsuragi... SEELE would do anything to defeat us and regain control of Unit 01 and its pilot."

Seriousness returns to Misato's expression due to the last thing Ritsuko said. She then looks at the main screen and thinks, "In that case, we better watch ourselves. Who knows what else SEELE has to throw at us?"

Kensuke slowly makes Unit 04 sit up while looking at the enemy in disbelief. "How the heck am I going to beat it?! That was just insane!"

Hikari suddenly makes her Eva run towards the enemy while yelling out through the intercom, "Kensuke! I'll grab its attention while you search for an opening!" Extra Eva then pulls out a Prog Knife with its right hand from its left shoulder pylon as it's about to strike the enemy.

Kensuke yells out in worry while watching the Extra Eva, "Be careful!"

Dummy Eva 12 looks at the Extra Eva while pointing its right arm at it. In response, Hikari suddenly makes her Eva dash towards the right to avoid the aim of the enemy. Extra Eva then heads towards the enemy from its left and attempts to strike it with the Prog Knife again. Unfortunately, Dummy Eva 12's A.T. Field blocks the attack and quickly points its right arm towards the Extra Eva while facing away from it.

Kensuke makes his Eva get up and quickly runs towards the enemy. Unit 04 then lunges and wraps its arms around the enemy from the front for it to stop Dummy Eva 12's attack. Afterwards, Kensuke looks towards the Extra Eva and yells out, "Get it, Hikari! I'm neutralizing its A.T. Field!"

Hikari hesitates for a moment while the Extra Eva stops next to the enemy Eva. She then makes a serious expression and yells out as her Eva thrusts the Prog Knife towards the enemy's neck, "Alright! Here I go!" The Prog Knife then collides with the enemy's A.T. Field and this cause Hikari to be in shock while yelling out, "It's not going through!"

Misato becomes worried by what she saw occur on the main screen. "Why isn't it working?!" She then yells out in a commanding tone into her microphone that's in her collar, "Hikari! Expand your A.T. Field!"

Hikari responds with a panicked tone. "I am, but it's not doing anything!"

Dummy Eva 12 looks at both Unit 04 and Extra Eva while its right arm is pinned up against its body. Then without any warning, its pinned up arm starts to conduct electricity and quickly unleashes the Crusher System's sound-wave. The sound-wave successfully hits both Unit 04 and Extra Eva. This results in both Evas being sent flying into the air. After being sent flying quite a distance away from the enemy, both Unit 04 and Extra Eva crash into the ground. They were both sent to a different direction and their Evas have suffered some damage from both the Crusher System's power and from the crash.

Misato makes a concerned expression while walking up next to Hyuga's left. "It's so strong! How can they beat something like that?!"

Hyuga turns his chair to look at Misato with his right hand on the keys of his screen while being very surprised. "Colonel! Unit 03 has just been launched!" Misato then looks at Hyuga while Touji's looking at Hyuga as well from behind with surprise being noted.

Nero's image suddenly appears on the main screen and says with a calm demeanor, "Misato. I'm heading towards Kensuke and Hikari. They won't be able to defeat that Eva."

Touji takes a few steps forward with irritation arising and yells out, "And what took ya so long?!"

Nero looks towards Touji with an apologetic expression, places his right hand in front of his mouth in a vertical position as if praying and says with his left eye shut, "I'm sorry, Touji. I have no good excuse to tell you, but don't worry." He then smiles while opening his left eye as he lowers his right hand to grab on to the control. "I'll keep my word." With that said, his image suddenly disappears.

Touji gives off a look of skepticism at first, but then smiles and says to himself, "He may look like Shinji, but he's a whole lot different from him." He then chuckles. "He's actually pretty cool."

Nero quickly arrives at Kensuke and Hikari's location, looks towards the enemy Eva with curiosity showing as his arms are crossed and thinks, "I'm still a bit surprised that Keel would have the Crusher System installed into an Eva without a pilot. Although, the Tabris Dummy Plug is a pretty good substitute. But even that doesn't comprehend the limits of that weapon." He then uncrosses his arms and grabs onto the controls with a confident smile showing as he softly says to himself, "Let's see how well the Crusher System holds up after it has been used twice. In most tests involving it, it only worked twice before starting to overheat to dangerous levels."

Dummy Eva 12 then sees Unit 03 and turns to face it while its right arm starts to conduct electricity again. In response, Nero chuckles due to seeing that Dummy Eva 12 is now focused on him and says, "Don't be stupid. That weapon isn't made for long distance. The shock-waves created by the sound it makes disappears after a certain short-range. I'm too far away from its reach." Suddenly, Nero's expression changes and displays seriousness within his eyes. "But I don't plan on keeping this distance." With that said, Unit 03 dashes towards the enemy Eva.

Misato watches Unit 03 dash towards the enemy Eva and yells out of panic, "What are you doing?! Its better that you attack from far away!"

Dummy Eva 12 points its right arm towards Unit 03 and sends out another sound-wave just as Unit 03 is within its range. Fortunately, Unit 03 barely dodges the sound-wave by moving to the right while still running towards the enemy. Unit 03 then throws a right punch right when its seconds away from the enemy and the punch hits it in the face. This causes Touji to be surprised while taking a step back with his left foot. "He actually hit it!"

Misato watches on while being stunned and thinks, "How was he able to do that? Kensuke and Hikari together weren't able to do that, but he could."

Dummy Eva 12 takes a step back due to the force of the punch. It then quickly points its right arm at Unit 03 again and releases the Crusher System again. In response, Unit 03 does a sway-back to dodge the attack as Nero laughs while doing it. "That was close." He then tightens his grip on the controls as he pushes them to make Unit 03 pull forward with a lot of force and head-butts the enemy Eva's head.

Due to the force of the head-butt, Dummy Eva 12 starts to fall backwards, and as it falls, it lets out another sound-wave towards Unit 03. Ritsuko then yells out in a panic as she sees what Dummy Eva 12 is doing, "He won't be able to dodge it in time!"

Misato yells out with a worried tone while watching the main screen, "Nero!"

Nero smiles as Unit 03 takes the sound's shock-wave head on, but holds its ground while stepping in next to the enemy's right. Afterwards, Unit 03 punches the enemy in the stomach with its right fist and the force causes Dummy Eva 12 to crash its back into the ground while making a moderately large crater.

As everyone in Central Dogma watched what transpired, they're all gawking in amazement. Then, as Dummy Eva 12 lies on the ground, it suddenly points its right arm towards Unit 03 again and attempts to use the Crusher System one more time, but suddenly, its arm explodes while the Eva short-circuits itself and turns off. This causes Nero to be quite curious as he looks down at the defeated Eva and says to himself, "That was its sixth try. They improved on the limit quite a bit... But to attempt that last one, the Crusher System ended up going against itself."

Nero looks towards the left side while thinking, "This was most likely a test run for the Crusher System. I bet this won't be the last time they'll be using it." Having said that, Nero smiles as Unit 03 stands up straight while he looks towards the sky and says softly, "I just wonder when they'll use it again."

Misato turns her attention to Maya with a hint of concern brimming. "What exactly happened?!"

Maya looks at her screen with a confused expression. "I don't know. It tried to send out another attack with that weapon, but seems like it back-fired."

Ritsuko gives Misato a serious looks. "That means I was right. SEELE hasn't completed the Crusher System yet."

Misato veers her eyes towards Ritsuko for a moment with a bit of concern and then returns her focus back towards Maya while calmly saying, "How are the others doing? Are they alright?"

Maya looks up at the screen after having typed something and says with a composed tone, "See for yourself, Colonel."

Misato peers at the screen with curiosity being noted and then sees Unit 05, which is located in the north region of the city, as it's fighting against Dummy Eva 13. She's also a bit surprised at how much damage the enemy has received. Dummy Eva 13's appearance composes of its head being similar to Unit 00's head and has three legs instead of two in a form of a triangle with wheels on the bottom of them so it can maneuver around as it's the color teal. Originally, it had two pistol-like guns in each hand, but it had lost its left arm while fighting against Mari. Dummy Eva 13's currently trying to back away from Unit 05 while shooting at it with its remaining pistol.

Mari giggles while in pursuit of the enemy Eva and attempts to strike it with Unit 05's javelins. "I really can't get why you act scared! If I was SEELE, I would fix that!" She then pauses for a moment as she smiles. "Well, whatever! You're done for, anyway!" After that, Mari pulls onto the controls to make Unit 05 swerve around the enemy and positions it behind Dummy Eva 13.

In response, Dummy Eva 13 tries to stop itself from backing up into Unit 05 while turning to face it. Mari then giggles again while pulling Unit 05's left javelin. "Too late!" With that cry, Unit 05 launches itself towards the enemy by firing off its rocket-thrusters, which are installed into the lower part of Unit 05. As Unit 05 flies towards the enemy, it thrusts its javelin and slices the enemy's head off.

After getting its head sliced off, Dummy Eva 13 stops moving and suddenly falls to the ground. Mari then lands her Eva behind the motionless body of Dummy Eva 13 while having Unit 05 facing away from it. Afterwards, Mari smiles to herself while turning her head to the right to look at the enemy she had just defeated. "SEELE should be better than this..." She then makes a serious expression as she turns her attention towards the area that's in front of her. "Or maybe they have something bigger planned. This could be the reason why this seems so easy."

Misato smiles after seeing that Mari was successful. Then, without having to say anything, the main screen's image changes to focus on Unit 01 and Unit 02. She then makes an expression of relief as she sees that the enemy Eva has almost been defeated and contentedly says to herself, "Why am I not surprised?"

Dummy Eva 10 is severely damaged by the combined efforts of Unit 01 and Unit 02's attacks. Right now it's facing towards Unit 02 while Unit 01's at a small distance away behind it as Dummy Eva 10 holds its sword in a sideways position with each hand being placed on opposite ends. This is so that it can be ready to block the next attack.

Asuka confidently smiles as she looks at the enemy. "There's no point defending! I'm going to beat you down no matter what!" She then passionately yells while making her Eva run towards the enemy.

Shinji watches Unit 02 with worry while bent forward a bit and thinks, "Please be careful, Asuka."

Dummy Eva 10 braces itself as Unit 02 comes into contact with its A.T. Field. Afterwards, Asuka makes Unit 02 neutralize the enemy's A.T. Field with its own and then points Unit 02's shoulder pylons towards the enemy. "Eat this!" She then fires the spikes out of both pylons towards the enemy.

In response to the spikes, Dummy Eva 10 quickly deflects most of them with its sword, but a couple of the spikes still strike its chest, which causes it to groan in pain. After that, Asuka sees her opportunity and makes Unit 02 pull out a Prog Knife with its right hand from the right pylon. It then swiftly thrusts it into the enemy's stomach. After doing that, Asuka yells out with urgency while staring at Dummy Eva 10 with intensity, "Shinji, now's your chance!"

Unit 01 quickly runs up behind the enemy Eva after Shinji hears Asuka's command while holding a Prog Knife in its right hand as well. Shinji then gets ready to make Unit 01 thrust the Prog Knife while yelling out, "Here I go!"

As soon as Unit 01 comes into contact with the enemy Eva, it stabs the enemy's lower back. This results in Dummy Eva 10's core unit being struck and causes it to suddenly start to light up. Afterwards, Asuka shouts out with a bit of concern and urgency, "Back away, Shinji!"

Shinji nods in agreement with seriousness being displayed. "Right!" He then quickly makes his Eva pull away from the enemy. Asuka does the same thing as the enemy Eva blows up, which the explosion is quite large.

As the explosion continues, Nero sits calmly inside Unit 03 while watching the explosion on his upper front screen. As he does this, his arms are crossed with a plain expression. "It's funny how it took them so long to beat one Eva while working together." He then looks at a left side screen that shows Unit 05 and smiles. "Mari by herself was able to beat an Eva before they did. Now that's a bit odd. Why didn't they finish first?" Nero gives off a cold stare as he sees Unit 01 standing at a small distance away from the explosion. "I'll just ask him what exactly happened when I have the chance." After saying that, he suddenly realizes something and snaps his head towards the south part of the city, which is towards his right, and says, "I just remembered that Rei's fighting an Eva by herself!"

With that outburst, the scene changes to focus on Unit 00 and the last enemy Eva, which is Dummy Eva 11. Unit 00 has received large amounts of damage, which is displayed by the broken off metal plates of the Eva. Some parts of Unit 00's body are even producing electricity from the wounds it has received. Unfortunately for Rei, Dummy Eva 11 seems to have not received any damage at all.

Misato makes a horrified expression as she sees how damaged Unit 00 is and yells out, "Rei won't be able to hold out much longer! She needs help!"

Rei breathes heavily from exhaustion as her head's lowered. "There's only one way to defeat it." After saying that, Rei looks towards the area where the self-destruct switch is and thinks to herself, "As soon as I get close enough to it, I'll trigger the self-destruct system." She then looks up at the enemy Eva with a serious glare as she continues to breathe heavily. "This Eva is too strong. I have no choice. This is for the sake of everyone." Having said that, she closes her eyes for a moment as she sighs. She then looks at the enemy again with sadness in her eyes. "I just wish I could say goodbye to all of them."

Dummy Eva 11 stands at a small distance away in front of Unit 00 and then suddenly rushes towards the blue Eva while pulling its scythe over its head to be ready to swing it towards Unit 00 when it gets close enough. Rei braces herself with seriousness in her eyes while thinking, "Since my Eva's A.T. Field won't be able to hold up against its attack, once I'm hit, I'll activate the self-destruct system."

When Dummy Eva 11 gets close enough to Unit 00, it begins to swing its scythe downwards while aiming for Unit 00's head. But suddenly, the scythe is stopped by a right hand that has appeared right above the enemy Eva while the hand is holding the top part of the scythe's blade. As this occurred, the scythe is still over Dummy Eva 11's head.

Rei's eyes widen as she's baffled by what she's seeing and says with a moderately loud tone, "It's Unit 03!"

Nero has Unit 03 do a hand-stand while still holding onto the scythe's blade. As he does this, Nero watches the enemy from above it with a joyful smile. "Made it!" He then pulls onto the controls to make Unit 03 sway its body forward and knees the enemy in the face.

As a result, Dummy Eva 11's sent flying backwards and crashes into the ground. Unit 03 then lands on its feet while facing towards where the enemy had fallen and stands in front of Unit 00. After doing that, Nero displays confidence while his image appears on Rei's right side screen. "Are you alright, Rei?"

Rei looks at Nero while still being a bit surprised at his sudden appearance. She then nods at him with a passive expression while Kensuke suddenly yells out with a concerned tone as his Eva runs towards Unit 00, "Rei! Are you okay?!

Rei looks towards Unit 04 while being even more surprised and responds. "Kensuke!"

Dummy Eva 11 suddenly gets back to a vertical base as it looks towards Unit 03. It then tightens its grip on the scythe and charges towards Unit 03 with a good amount of speed. Having seen that, Misato yells out with a desperate tone, "Guys! Look out!"

Nero calmly looks towards the enemy with a plain expression due to him not being too worried about it heading towards him. Dummy Eva 11 then swings its scythe in a sideways angle as it's aimed at Unit 03. In response, Unit 03's A.T. Field appears and effortlessly blocks the scythe's attack.

Misato's shocked as she pulls back a little. "His A.T. Field held up!"

Nero smiles and shouts with a moderately commanding tone while also sounding joyful, "Rei, Kensuke! Attack it and aim for its head!"

Both Kensuke and Rei hesitate for a moment due to Nero's sudden command. They then regain their composure and pull out their Prog Knives. Afterwards, Rei makes Unit 00 go around Unit 03 by going to the left of it while Kensuke does the same thing, but towards the right. After positioning their Evas, both Evas thrust their Prog Knives into Dummy Eva 11's head. This surprises both of them since they were finally able to penetrate its A.T. Field. Once Dummy Eva 11's head was pierced by the Prog Knives, it suddenly shuts off and crumbles to the ground.

After witnessing that, everyone in Central Dogma start to celebrate the defeat of the final enemy Eva. While the others are cheering, Misato smiles while watching the main screen. "Way to go, guys."

Touji smiles too as he looks at the main screen and thinks, "I got no complaints. The guy sure can pilot. As long as he keeps his promise, we won't have any problems."

With those words, the scene changes to focus on the five main members of SEELE, which a few of them aren't too pleased at what they just witnessed.

SEELE # 3 has his eyes closed with his arms crossed while his head's lowered. "This is starting to get annoying."

SEELE # 4 looks at SEELE # 3 with dull eyes from across the table and nods in agreement. "You're right." He then looks at Keel. "To be losing so many of our Evas like this is unnecessary. I say we send the last seven Dummy Plug Evas to wipe out NERV and capture Unit 01 with its pilot. That way we can try Instrumentality again."

SEELE # 3 calmly opens his eyes to look at Keel. "I agree."

Keel looks at both of them with a plain expression. "I have already told all of you many times. We need to wait for the ace's confirmation. Although, I will pick things up a bit."

SEELE # 5 gets up from his seat, slams his hands onto the table and leans towards Keel with anger over taking him. "The ace is taking too damn long! We shouldn't go based on his decision anyway!"

Keel gives SEELE # 5 a serious look while responding. "We aren't."

SEELE # 5's surprised as he removes his hands from the table and stands up straight. Keel then looks at all of them and says, "This is why I said, 'I will pick things up a bit'."

A boy suddenly walks in with his hands in his dark blue jean pockets while his t-shirt is black with a red full moon on the center. He then arrogantly smiles while having a nonchalant demeanor and says in English, "And you'll pick things up by using me, of course." The boy chuckles. *Side Note: I'll explain why he's talking in English at the end of the episode*

SEELE # 2 looks at the boy with surprise quickly arising and says in English for the boy's benefit, "Lucas!" He then looks at Keel with concern brimming. "What's the meaning of this?!"

Keel looks at SEELE # 2 with a plain expression. *Side Note: The members of SEELE will be talking in English from now on* "I don't know." He then looks at Lucas. "I didn't mean you in specific, Lucas."

Lucas sighs out of irritation while dropping his head down and then looks up at Keel. "I'm tired of waiting. Especially when you guys haven't made an Eva for me, yet."

SEELE # 2 looks at Lucas with a hint of annoyance. "Well isn't that a bit obvious. You were meant to be the pilot for the original Unit 07 that's currently being completed, but since you're as much as a nuisance as Ms. Makinami, you lost your position to Evan."

Lucas becomes enraged while giving SEELE # 2 an intense glare. "Which I'm still pissed off about! I'm a much better pilot than Evan!" He then looks at Keel while placing his right hand over his chest, which is where the red moon on his shirt is located. "If you let me pilot Unit 07, I'll make sure to defeat NERV and bring you Unit 01 WITH its pilot!"

Suddenly, another boy appears behind Lucas while wearing khaki pants and an aqua-colored, long-sleeved shirt with an "X" on the collar. He then laughs with an arrogant tone and says in English as well, "As if!"

Lucas' stunned while being a bit startled at the boy's sudden statement. He then turns to look at him with hatred consuming him while putting his right hand down. "You son of a bitch! What the hell are you doing here, Evan?!"

Evan walks up to Lucas while smiling at him. "I'm here to make sure you don't keep running your mouth." He then makes a skeptical expression while tilting his head a bit towards the left. "Who the hell do you think you are, Lucas? You've never been able to beat Nero. What makes you think that this will be any different?"

Lucas gets very upset while lightly gritting his teeth and then takes a step towards Evan. "Shut up! That was fencing! You know how everything's ranked! Nero's first and even though no one other than Nero has faced him, we all know that-"

Keel gets up off his seat and yells out in a stern tone with anger radiating from his person, "Don't say his name!"

Lucas is startled due to Keel's outburst and looks at him with a shocked expression. Keel then calms himself while sitting back down with seriousness returning. "You know he doesn't like people saying his name when he's not around."

Evan chuckles, walks up next to Lucas and looks at him out of the corner of his eyes. "Yeah, retard. Did you forget?"

Lucas' right eye twitches slightly with irritation while glaring at Evan out of the corner of his eyes. "What did I tell you about calling me that?!"

Evan chuckles again while looking away from Lucas. "You're such a sensitive, little boy."

Keel suddenly says with a commanding tone, "Enough!" After Keel's second outburst, Evan and Lucas both look at him while each making a concerned expression. Keel then turns his focus towards Lucas and says with a stern tone, "Your request to use Unit 07 is denied."

Lucas becomes quite upset after hearing what Keel just said and takes a step forward while yelling out, "But why?!"

Keel responds firmly. "Stop complaining. You will be sent for the next attack, but you won't be going alone."

Lucas becomes confused while raising his right eyebrow with his mouth slightly opened. "What do you mean? And what Eva am I going to pilot?"

Keel answers. "You will pilot a Dummy Plug Eva and you'll be accompanied by two other Dummy Plug Evas."

Lucas is in shock at first and then becomes upset again while yelling out, "But those Dummy Plug Evas aren't as good as the Unit Evas!"

Keel responds coldly. "We will convert one to suit you perfectly. With the Dummy Plug of Tabris, you will also improve as a pilot."

Lucas looks away from Keel with irritation quickly returning while saying softly to himself, "As if I need it."

Keel overhears what Lucas said and retorts with a commanding tone while being a bit annoyed, "Don't be so arrogant! What Evan said earlier was true! You are no match for Nero, and his brother is a formidable opponent! Also, this is a direct order from me! Avoid fighting Nero at all cost!"

Lucas looks at him while being in shock again. "W-What?! But you know I want to get back at him! Don't take this away from me!"

Evan chuckles in a nonchalant way. "Yeah, right. You aren't the only one who has a grudge against Nero. If HE can't even face Nero, what makes you think that you will be allowed?"

Lucas looks at Evan with an annoyed expression. "No one asked you!"

Keel cuts in with a stern tone, "That's enough, I said. You're dismissed, Lucas."

Lucas makes a bit of a surprised expression as he turns his attention towards Keel. He then becomes quite depressed as he slouches his posture. "Alright, Chairmen Keel." With that, Lucas turns around and walks out of the room.

Keel watches Lucas leave and then looks at Evan with a serious gaze. "You know I would normally ask you to watch him."

Evan gives Keel a plain look and responds with a slightly agitated tone. "And you know I hate doing that."

Keel nods in agreement. "Indeed. That's why I won't ask you to do that this time."

Evan smiles with amusement while tilting his head slightly to the left. "You know he won't listen to your command about avoiding Nero."

Keel responds with a hint of content as he's smiling. "I know. It's actually what I'm hoping for."

Evan straightens his head while still looking a Keel as he's a bit surprised. "Really? Why is that?"

Keel states in response, "Because afterwards, I'm sure we will receive our confirmation." He then chuckles a little.

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

I'm going to try to keep this short because after this, I'm going to give you the description of Lucas and Evan that I neglected to give you during the episode. First, the language explanation. Lucas and Evan are Americans and don't know much Japanese. So remember that whenever they talk, it's in English unless told otherwise. Also, remember the fact that in Evangelion, mostly everyone was talking in Japanese due to it being the main language for the show. I say "Mostly" because Asuka can obviously speak German while Mari, although being European, she can speak English from the Rebuild of Evangelion Movie, which she can do as well in my story. It took me quite a bit to write this episode because I wasn't really up to it. I hope you all enjoyed the episode and look forward to the next one.

Character Description:

Lucas Valley - age 15, half Canadian and half American, he has light skin, weighs 142 pounds, small build, his hair is like Touji's hair while the front part of it is spiked up with his hair being crimson dark red. He has three piercings on the top part of his right ear, each being a different color and next to each other. The colors from left to right are blue, black and red. He has light green eyes, and he's 5'6". His birthday is January 12, 2001. This is why he's 15.

Evan Hughes - age 15, American, his skin is a bit tanned, weighs 141 pounds, small build, his hair is similar to Kaji's hair style except it's dirty blond and he doesn't have the pony tail due to his hair being shorter than Kaji's. He has brown eyes, and he's 5'6". His birthday is March 4, 2001. His birthday passed not too long ago so that's why he's 15 as well.

That's it. Talk To you all later.


	12. Episode 12

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

Right now, I have an idea for an episode that involves me ripping off something from the Rebuild of Evangelion, but I doubt I will bring that idea out in this episode. I'll most likely use this episode to set up for my idea while making this episode a bit drama based and informative about a certain someone. Enjoy the episode and I continue to thank the great minds of the Gainax team for bringing us Evangelion.

Episode 12: With An Uncomfortable Twist Comes Uncertainty

After their recent success, the children were given the rest of the weekend to relax. Once the weekend came to an end and Monday started, it was obvious that there will be a new student in the class. But for right now, class has not started yet and all the students are talking among themselves as they wait for the teacher to enter the room. The classroom that the children are in is still room A-2 since it's the class they're in for every one of their middle school years. It's currently the beginning of May, 2016 and the children are wearing the same school uniform from before, which obviously includesMari. The teacher finally enters the classroom with a calm demeanor. He stops in front of the board while facing towards the students with his hands behind his back. *Side Note:The teacher is the same elderly man from the students' eighth grade year. Explanation for that will be at the end of the episode if I remember*

Hikari quickly stands up from her seat with a serious demeanor and looks towards her fellow classmates. "Stand up, everyone!"

The students all stand up in response to Hikari's command and acknowledge the teacher's arrival. Hikari then says with a firm tone, "You may sit down!" With that said, Hikari sits down while looking towards the teacher. The others follow suit while maintaining their attention on the teacher.

The teacher clears his throat for a moment and then says with a bland tone, "Good morning, students. I would like to start things off by introducing your new classmate. So please make him feel welcomed." He then looks towards his left, which is where the door is located, and motions with his left hand for the new student to enter.

Nero enters the room with his hands in his pockets. He walks up next to the teacher with a content smile and then turns to face the other students. It can be noted that he's wearing the school uniform with a dark grey t-shirt underneath the polo. "Good morning, everyone. My name is Nero Akaya. I'm honored to be a part of your class." After saying that, he closes his eyes as he respectfully bows down towards his fellow classmates.

As a result, all the students except the pilots are surprised as they look back and forth between Nero and Shinji multiple times. A male student then looks at another male student that's behind him and whispers with his right hand cuffed around the left side of his mouth, "Dude! That guy looks just like Shinji!"

The other male student looks back at him while nodding in agreement. After that, he whispers back at the first male student with his left hand being cuffed around his mouth, "Yeah! Could they be related?!"

A female student joins in while sitting next to the second male student. She looks at both of them with seriousness brimming as she whispers, "No way! Asuka never mentioned that Shinji has a twin or anything like that!"

The fists male student looks at the female student while making an expression of realization. "You're right!" He then focuses his expression while leaning towards the girl. "And Shinji's never once said anything about having a twin!"

Another female student cuts in as she sits behind the second male student. She's currently looking at the first male student with a hint of arrogance while whispering, "If you haven't NOTICED, they don't look exactly alike. His hair is black!"

The first male student looks at her with a confused expression. "What are you talking about? Shinji's hair is black."

The second male student gives the first male student a look of disbelief. "Are you a dumb-ass?! Shinji's hair isn't black! It's brown!"

The first male student is quite surprised by what he just heard. After that, he looks back and forth between Shinji and Nero. He then focuses on the second male student while saying, "You're right!"

Asuka gets very irritated as she hears her fellow classmates talk due to her sitting pretty close to them. Asuka's seat is located in the middle of the classroom while those students who are talking are towards her upper right. At the same time Asuka becomes irritated, her eyes are closed while she's clenching her fists to represent how irritated she is. She then suddenly slams the palm of her hands onto her desk and stands up to look at her classmates that are irritating her. "Yes! They look-alike! But that's it! So get over it already! Your constant yammering is annoying the crap out of me!"

Due to Asuka's outburst, all the students except Nero look at her while being very surprised. Meanwhile, Nero chuckles a little with his eyes closed, his posture now upright and looks at Asuka while thinking, "That was thoughtful of her."

The teacher calmly looks at Asuka and says with a stern tone while his voice sounds a bit weary, "That's enough, Ms. Soryu. Please take your seat."

Asuka looks at the teacher while being a bit embarrassed. She then nods at him and says with a composed tone, "Yes, sir." Asuka sits back down on her seat while looking down at her desk due to the embarrassment she's feeling with both of her hands between her legs.

After seeing Asuka sit down, the teacher turns his attention to Nero with his hands still behind his back. "Mr. Akaya. You have a few options on where to sit. We have recently lost the company of a few students, so you can choose among the empty seats."

Nero gazes at the teacher for a moment while smiling and nods at him. After doing that, he looks towards the students and analyzes the room to notice that there's an empty seat on Asuka's right hand side, which happens to be a seat that's located behind the students that were talking about him earlier. Nero then looks at the teacher out of the corner of his eyes while pointing at the seat with his left hand. "That will do."

Curiosity abruptly takes over the teacher's expression as he peers at the seat. "So, you want to sit next to Ms. Soryu?"

Asuka's eyes widen from surprise due to her name being said. She then hurriedly looks up at Nero and the teacher while saying in disbelief, "Next to me?!"

The teacher turns his attention on Asuka with a hint of curiosity and concern. "Is there a problem with that, Ms. Soryu?"

Asuka gets a bit embarrassed again while lightly blushing as she pulls her head back a little. "Uhh... No, sir. There isn't."

The teacher returns his focus to Nero with his usual bland expression. "You may take your seat then, Mr. Akaya. I will give you the work you missed at the end of class."

Nero looks at the teacher, puts his hands behind his head and nods. He then veers his eyes towards his desk and walks to it. Once he arrives at his desk, Nero sits down and looks at the board with his arms crossed on top of his desk and rests his chin on them.

Asuka stares at Nero while spacing out a bit and then smiles with content. Right after that, she looks towards the board as Shinji's watching Asuka from her upper left due to him being seated in the front part of the class with concern being noted while thinking, "That's weird. Asuka usually doesn't stick-up for people like that."

With that thought, the school day continues on a little bit and now a few hours had passed since the beginning of class. Most of the students are hard at work while quite a few of them are being extremely impatient for their lunch time to come and even a few of them are goofing around. While almost all of the students are still working on the assignment, Nero has already finished. He's now spacing out with his arms crossed on top of his desk while his head rests on his arms in a sideways position. As a result, being in that position has Nero looking towards Asuka's direction. Nero then remembers something from his past while slowly closing his eyes.

*Flashback: June 18, 2012*

The scene shows a large, gym-like room that's located inside the 1st Branch of NERV as there are five kids in that room. Among those kids, there is a younger Nero, Evan and Lucas while there are two girls sitting on a bench that's located on the right side of the room. It's revealed that two of the kids are actually fencing each other while the others watch. The girls and Nero are currently wearing street clothing while Evan and Lucas are wearing fencing clothing, but they aren't wearing the fencing face guard. Also, the kids are roughly between the ages of 10 and 11. *Side Note: The boys are the same height while the girls are slightly a bit shorter than them*

Lucas falls down on his ass while dropping his fencing sword with exhaustion being shown as his head is lowered. After a few seconds of breathing heavily, he looks up at Nero with irritation taking over. "Bastard...!"

Nero smiles at Lucas while standing in front of him. He holds his fencing sword with his right hand and rests it against his right shoulder. "You're the one who asked for this match. So please stop complaining."

Evan stands behind Lucas at a small distance away and laughs while watching both of them. "Asking him to stop whining is like asking God for an autograph." He then laughs again with his head tilted back this time.

Lucas glares at Evan with an enraged expression. "Shut up!" Afterwards, he turns his attention back to Nero and gets up off the floor while picking up his sword with his left hand. He then points at Nero with the sword. "Let's go one more time! This time I'll beat you for sure!"

Nero turns his body towards the right and looks at Lucas in a sideways position. "No way. We agreed it would be a best two out of three. I already beat you twice... In a row." He then lets out a short chuckle.

After hearing Nero's words, Lucas becomes upset while putting his left arm down. At the same time, he grits his teeth while tightening his grip on his hands and glares at Nero. Evan then steps in with indifference showing on his face while tilting his head slightly to the left. "Cool it, retard."

Lucas turns to face Evan with an intense glare and yells out in rage, "Don't call me that! I hate being called that!"

Evan chuckles a little bit with his eyes closed as he shrugs with his head lowered slightly. "It's not my fault you're so sensitive about the truth." After saying that, Evan looks up at Lucas with an arrogant smile.

Lucas becomes even more enraged as he continues to glare at Evan and thinks, "Evan... You bastard..."

Suddenly, one of the girls that had been watching while sitting next to the other girl on a bench sighs in disappointment due to what she's witnessing. As she sighs, her head is lowered while she's shaking her head in disapproval. This girl has light brown wavy long hair and has hazel eyes. Her skin is light and she's a bit shorter than the other girl. After shaking her head, she states with her head still lowered and her eyes shut, "Why do boys have to always fight?"

The other girl looks at the first girl with her hazel eyes while smiling as her light skin gleams a little due to the lighting of the room. While doing this, she leans backwards a little with her hands on the bench for leverage. This action causes her short straight light brown hair that reaches down to her neck while being tied up into a pony tail move elegantly and then responds to the first girl's question with confidence, "Boys will be boys. Remember?" She then lets out a soft giggle.

The first girl looks at the second girl with sadness brimming. "Yeah, I remember." She then gives out a sinister smile as she says with a nonchalant tone, "But you have it rough with Lucas though."

The second girl is a bit confused by the first girl's comment while tilting her head to the right. "What are you talking about?"

The first giggles a little and then says with a playful tone, "Don't play dumb. You know he's going to be your future husband."

The second girl is surprised by what she just heard. After that, she leans towards the first girl and yells out with a defensive tone, "Are you crazy?! I would never go out with Lucas, let alone marry him!"

Lucas looks at her while being in shock a bit and then gets very upset with his posture now facing the two girls. "I heard that! Why wouldn't you go out with me?!"

The second girl looks at Lucas with a criticizing expression. "Because you're hot-headed, you show no restraint, and I bet you would never know how to treat a girl."

Lucas is completely stunned by what the second girl just said and is unable to come up with a response. After hearing what the second girl said, Evan throws his head back and starts to laugh while holding onto his stomach with his right hand. This action upsets Lucas as he looks at Evan with another intense glare while yelling out, "Shut up!"

The first girl looks at the second girl with a skeptical expression. "That's strange. I thought he would be perfect for you." Having said that, she giggles while covering her mouth with her right hand.

The second girl looks at the first with disbelief arising. "You have to be crazy!" She then leans towards her a little while passionately yelling out, "You know I have feelings for Nero!"

Nero's very surprised after hearing what the second girl said and thinks to himself, "She said that with no hesitation at all!"

Lucas slowly looks at Nero with irritation growing as he mumbles, "Of course... Nero always has to be the center of attention... Even when it comes to her..."

The first girl leans towards the second girl with seriousness taking over. "Well, your feelings are stupid! Nero would never go out with you 'cause he would obviously be with me!"

The second girl gives out a fake laugh with her head tilted back a little. She then leans even closer to the first girl with an arrogant smile brimming. "In your dreams! He would definitely choose me over you any day! Don't get your hopes up!"

Nero makes a plain expression as he thinks, "I can't believe they're fighting over me. How ridiculous." He then drops his head down with his eyes closed and gives out a soft sigh.

The first girl suddenly yells out with determination radiating, "I would do anything for Nero!"

The second girl yells out in response with the same amount of determination, "Me too!"

Nero looks at both of them with seriousness residing within his eyes and says with a firm tone, "Vanessa, Casey! That's enough!"

The first girl being Casey and the second girl being Vanessa both look at Nero with shock on their faces due to his sudden outburst. Nero then calms himself and sincerely smiles at both Vanessa and Casey. "Sisters shouldn't fight over a guy. It's more important you two stick together and not let a guy or anything drive you apart." After saying that, Nero looks towards the ceiling with a somber expression and says softly to himself, "Same thing goes for brothers."

All Casey and Vanessa can do is blush as their focus is on Nero. Evan then walks up next to Lucas with calmness being displayed and mumbles, "That's Nero for you. Always being the one to maintain order." After saying that, Evan smiles for a moment, but quickly loses it while looking down at the floor with disdain as he thinks, "That's one of the things I despise about him..."

Nero chuckles while looking at Vanessa and Casey with a bit of a sad smile. "And I hate to break it to you two, but I have no interest in dating either of you."

Casey makes a surprised expression while being a bit stunned by what Nero just said and can't think of anything to say in response. Vanessa on the other hand gets up from the bench and looks at Nero with concern as she gestures her arms a little bit. "Why?! Why wouldn't you go out with me or her?!"

Nero puts his left hand in his pocket while tilting his head slightly to the left. "I've never thought of being with someone. Anyway, I'm too busy with school to be in a relationship." He then makes a slight expression of realization as he looks upwards. "Now that I think about it, I have to go to the University soon. I have my two final exams today."

Evan smiles at Nero. "That's right! Once you pass those tests, you'll technically already have your Master's Degree in Bio-Engineering and in Political Economics."

Vanessa smiles while walking up to Nero as Casey follows her. "One day, you'll be able to be involved with any government that you want."

Casey stands on the left of Vanessa while smiling and nods in agreement. "With that, you could possibly make a difference. Sadly, that won't be for some time and by then Keel's plan would have already been accomplished."

Nero chuckles as he looks at the girls. "Well that may be true, but I'm not interested in that. And I don't really care too much about Keel's plan.

Lucas scoffs at what Nero said as he puts his sword down. "You're saying that because you care about restoring the world back to the way it was for the stupid sea animals."

Casey looks at Lucas for a moment with confusion being displayed. She then realizes what Lucas meant while letting out a small gasp. "That's right!" She then looks at Nero again. "I forgot, you're also studying Marine Biology! That's how much you care about the sea life!"

Vanessa looks at Casey with a hint of surprise being displayed. She then looks at Nero with a joyful smile and says, "Oh yeah...! I forgot that you wanted to do that!"

Lucas looks away from them with skepticism showing on his person. "Which is impossible. Not even the best scientists in the world have figured that out. They're just waiting for the world to revert back by itself." He then looks at Nero. "There's no way you'll ever pull it off."

After Lucas said that, both Vanessa and Casey glare at him while being quite upset that he's doubting Nero. Meanwhile, Nero smiles at Lucas while placing his right hand behind his head with him maintaining a grip on his fencing sword. "It isn't as impossible as you think. Anyway, that's not the only reason why I want to return the world back to the way it was."

Lucas is surprised by what he just heard while thinking to himself, "What does he mean by that?!"

Nero slowly turns away from everyone with no emotion being given. "I have to go, but there's something I need to tell all of you before I leave."

Because of Nero's statement, Lucas and the others look at him with confusion. Nero then says with an emotionless tone as he swiftly turns back around to look at the others with a vague smile, "I'm leaving America after I take my tests." They're all then in shock due to them hearing what just came out of Nero's mouth.

After regaining some composure, Lucas marches up to Nero with his teeth gritted, and once he reaches Nero, he yells out with rage, "What?! You can't be serious! I haven't beaten you yet!"

Vanessa looks at Lucas while placing her left hand on her hip with rage arising from within her. "Is that all you care about?! Nero just told us he's leaving and you're just mad that you haven't beaten him yet!"

Casey looks at Nero with sadness resonating within her eyes. "Why do you have to leave?"

Nero gives Casey an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Casey. But my time here was never meant to be permanent. I was mostly here just for the development of my education."

Evan smiles and walks up next to Lucas while looking at Nero. "We'll miss you, Nero. It just stinks that you and he won't get to say goodbye."

After hearing what Evan said, Lucas becomes quite confused as he glances at Evan. "He? Who's he?"

Evan gives Lucas a criticizing look. "Who do you think, retard? The person we only met once, and that has a rivalry with Nero, duh."

Lucas makes an expression of realization as he turns his attention towards Nero. "Oh! You mean...!"

Casey takes a step towards Lucas and yells out with an urgent tone while cutting him off, "Don't say his name! You know how much he hates his name being said when he's not around!"

Lucas quickly shuts up with his right hand over his mouth as he looks at Casey while being startled by her outburst. Nero then chuckles while watching all of them. "It's fine. He and I don't get along anyway. You guys already know that. So it's for the best we don't see each other again just yet."

Vanessa lightly smiles at Nero while acting a bit shy. "If you say so."

Nero smiles back at Vanessa for a moment. He then suddenly recalls something while looking up at the ceiling with his head tilted back. After doing that, Nero looks at everyone again and says, "I just remembered. With me leaving, there will be a new addition to the group."

Evan raises his left eyebrow with a bit of concern being displayed. "Really? Who is it?"

Nero plainly looks at Evan as he responds to his question. "From her file, I've read that her name is Mari Illustrious Makinami. She's European and she seems to be the reckless type."

Shock quickly takes over Casey's face while her jaw had dropped for a moment. "A girl?! We're losing you for some girl?!"

Nero smiles at her with sympathy being displayed. "It seems so, but don't worry about it. I read that she won't be here for long. She keeps moving between the 4th and the 5th Branches. She's probably only coming here for Keel to evaluate her properly." After saying that, Nero looks at both Vanessa and Casey, tilts his head to the right and says with a moderately pleading tone, "Just try not to get into a fight with her you two. You can be just as bad as Lucas and Evan when arguing." He then chuckles a little while straightening his head.

Both Casey and Vanessa look away from Nero while being a bit irritated since they know what he just said is true. After that, Nero turns around with a content smile and lifts up his left hand to wave at them. "Bye, guys." Having said that, he starts to walk away from them.

Evan smiles with confidence brimming while waving back at Nero in the same manner with his right hand. "See ya, Nero! I'm sure we'll meet again!" He then puts his hand down and makes a serious expression while thinking, "Because the next time we meet, I'm going to prove who's better..."

Vanessa tries not to cry as she shouts out with her hands cuffed around her mouth, "Bye, Nero! I'll miss you!"

Casey shouts out too while actually crying a little bit as she's waving both of her hands above her head, "I'll miss you more!" Vanessa then quickly glares at Casey with annoyance radiating from her due to what Casey had just said while dropping her hands down. Meanwhile, Lucas watches Nero leave with an upset expression as he says under his breath, "This isn't over. I'll beat you someday. Because that's the only way you'll acknowledge me, Nero."  
With that, Nero has left the room and walks through multiple different hallways so he can get to his room. At the same time, he's looking up at the ceiling with his left hand in his pocket while holding the fencing sword with his right hand as the blade is resting on Nero's right shoulder. Unfortunately for him, Nero doesn't notice that a girl, who looks like she's about his age, is running towards him. The girl keeps running while looking behind her as she's giggling to herself. "Those guys are pathetic! I thought NERV's people would be better trained in watching a little girl!"

Having said that, the girl turns her attention towards in front of her and suddenly sees that she's about to collide into Nero. This causes her to be startled and yells out while trying to stop herself, "Oh my God! Watch out!"

Nero looks at her with a hint of confusion on his face. He then effortlessly moves towards the left so that they don't run into each other. Unfortunately for the girl, she trips up due to her trying to stop herself and starts to fall to the floor. As she falls, she closes her eyes while bracing herself since she assumes that her hitting the floor is going to hurt. Nero then swiftly catches her by wrapping his left arm around her waist, and after successfully catching her, he smiles while looking at her with his head tilted to the right for him to see her face. "You should watch where you're going."

The girl slowly opens her eyes after hearing what Nero said and is very surprised to find out that she didn't fall. She then looks at him while fixing her glasses with her left hand and smiles in an apologetic way. "Sorry about that." After saying that, the girl puts her hand down as she regains her balance. She then has Nero let go of her while turning to face him. "Thanks for catching me."

Nero backs up a little bit, tilts his head towards the left while looking at her and says with a layed back tone, "Let me guess. You're Mari, aren't you?"

Mari's eyes widen while being briefly surprised by Nero and then leans towards him with curiosity brimming. "How do you know my name?" She then suddenly notices a certain smell and inhales deeply through her nose with her eyes closed. As she does that, she says with a content tone, "Oh wow...!" After saying that, Mari breathes out through her mouth and looks at Nero with excitement. "You're a pilot, aren't you?! I can smell the LCL on you, and your natural scent makes it smell better than ever!"

Nero's quite amazed while smiling with his mouth open a little as he straightens his head's posture. "You have a good sense of smell."

Mari nods proudly and then says with excitement in her voice, "I certainly do! So, what's your name?!"

Nero suddenly chuckles with his eyes closed from amusement. He then turns around and starts to walk away from Mari, which causes Mari to become a bit surprised due to Nero not answering her. She then yells out with a hint of irritation in her voice, "Hey! Aren't you going to answer me?!"

Nero contentedly smiles to himself while lowering his head. "My name doesn't matter at the moment." He then looks at her out of the corner of his left eye while having turned his head towards the left. "Just remember my face. You'll probably see it again in the near future."

Confusion can be seen on Mari's expression as she tilts her head to the left while watching Nero walk away. Meanwhile, Nero focuses on what's in front of him and thinks to himself while still smiling, "She's quite interesting. I wonder if we'll meet again first or if she'll meet Shinji." He then pauses for a moment as he looks up at the ceiling with a hint of curiosity and says softly, "I wonder if she'll even remember."

*End Of Flashback*

Having finished the memory, Nero slowly opens his eyes as he's still facing towards Asuka in the same position he was before the flashback. He sees that she has an irritated expression as she's staring at her work and thinks with no real emotion being displayed, "She looks like she's having a hard time. That's kind of odd considering that she has an IQ higher than Rivka's."

With that thought completed, Nero notices Mari, who's looking at Shinji with a lot of admiration while she sits at a desk that's next to Shinji's desk and also in front of Asuka's desk. As Nero continues to watch Mari, he thinks with a hint of sadness, "Although I told her not to forget my face... It seems like she forgot anyway." He then sits up and looks at the board with a faint smile and thinks, "Oh well. It has been four years since then. Most people normally don't remember short meetings like those." Nero's eyes become full of sorrow as he looks towards Shinji out of the corner of his eyes and mutters, "And you're just like most people."

After a little time passes since Nero's remembrance of the past, the bell rings to notify the students that it's lunch time. As a result, almost all of the students get into their social groups and begin to enjoy their lunches. Right now, Asuka, Hikari and Rei are talking to a couple of their fellow, female classmates and the conversation they're having is quite an interesting one. *Side Note: It's the same two girls from earlier that were talking about Nero*

The first girl looks directly at Asuka with an excited expression while making her face get really close to Asuka's. As she does this, she's sitting in her desk and says, "Why didn't you tell us about Nero?! He looks so much like Shinji...! They could pass off as brothers!"

Annoyance can be noted on Asuka's face as she's sitting on top of her desk while leaning back a bit. This is due to how close the first girl is to her and then she yells out with her eyes closed, "Do you mind?! You're too damn close to me!"

The second girl suddenly leans towards Asuka as well and now her face is close to Asuka's as also with curiosity resonating within her eyes. "So does he have a girlfriend?!"

The first girl glances at the second girl for a moment. After that, she looks at Asuka again with curiosity brimming on her face. "Yeah! Like are he and Mari dating?! Because everyone knows she's obsessed over Shinji, but with them looking so much alike, you won't have to worry about her chasing after him, anymore!"

The second girl anxiously nods in agreement while still looking at Asuka. "That's right! She'll stop trying to steal Shinji if she has someone who looks almost exactly like him!"

Asuka has a bit of a stunned expression for a moment as she looks at both of her fellow classmates. Her expression then quickly changes while becoming engulfed with anger as she grits her teeth. Right after that, Asuka yells at both of them, "Shut up!"

As a result of Asuka's outburst, both girls quickly pull away from Asuka while being quite shocked. Asuka then stands up from her desk and stares at both of them with an intense glare as her hands are clenched into fists. "Quit comparing them! Just because they look-alike, doesn't mean Nero's going to be a scapegoat for Mari's obsession!"

After saying that, Asuka leans towards them while putting her right hand on her hip. "And remember, I'm the Great Asuka Langley Soryu! I'm not afraid of Mari!" She then whips her head towards the right for her hair to swing around behind her back and positions her face to be pretty close to both girls. "And for your information, Nero's not even interested in Mari, anyway!"

The first girl is suddenly filled with excitement while clasping her hands together with them being close to her chest. "That means they aren't dating and he's single?!"

The second girl smiles while looking at the first girl. "In that case, I'm going to ask him out!"

The first girl looks back at her with surprise emitting from her. She then makes a confident expression, puts her hands down and makes her face get closer to the second girl. "Not if I ask him first!"

Asuka gets quite irritated while still leaning towards the two girls. She then straightens her posture, rolls her eyes and looks away from them while saying softly to herself, "Idiots..."

Hikari watches Asuka while standing behind her with Rei on her right. At the same time, she thinks to herself while being quite amazed, "Did Asuka just stick up for Nero? That's unlike her. She would normally only stick up for Shinji, and maybe for her friends, but for her to get so upset over Nero, who hasn't been here that long..." She then crosses her arms and smiles while thinking, "I guess she feels like him and her are already friends."

After Hikari completed that thought, Shinji suddenly walks up next to her while being between both her and Rei, which this causes them to look at him. After doing that, it can be noted by both girls that Shinji's a bit concerned as he looks back and forth between the two of them. "What's going on?"

Rei lightly smiles while looking at Shinji and says with a calm tone, "It seems that Asuka is upset."

Shinji makes a confused expression as he looks at Rei. "Why?"

Hikari smiles as she looks towards Asuka. "Well, she was defending Nero since those two girls were comparing you and him."

Shinji looks at Hikari with amazement. "Asuka defended Nero?!" Curiosity then appears on Shinji's face as he looks at Asuka, who's still facing towards the two girls that are arguing between each other, and thinks, "I never thought she would do that." He then realizes something as he quickly starts to look around while thinking, "Now that I think about it. Where is Nero?" He then realizes something else while looking up at the ceiling and says underneath his breath, "Could he be up there?"

The scene suddenly changes and the main focus is now on the school's rooftop. Nero happens to be up there while sitting down on the floor with his posture curled-up. He's deep in thought as he's looking up at the sky. He's actually so focused on the sky, he doesn't realize that someone has arrived on the roof and that person is now standing right behind him.

Nero says softly to himself with dull eyes reflecting the sky as his face shows emptiness, "The endless sky." He then smirks. "Just another one of the world's beautiful aspects created by God."

Shinji doesn't hear what Nero says due to how low he was speaking as Shinji watches him with a light smile while thinking, "I just knew he would be here." He then says in a jokingly manner, "Found you."

Curiosity takes over Nero's expression while having heard Shinji's voice. After that, he turns his head to the right to look at him and smiles when he sees him. "So you have."

Shinji walks up next to Nero's right side while still looking at him. "I always come up here to listen to music." He then looks up at the sky with sadness filling his being. "I also came up here to get away from everything. But thanks to Asuka, I haven't done that in a while."

Nero keeps looking at Shinji with no real emotion being displayed and turns his attention towards in front of himself after a few seconds passing by while saying with a sad tone, "I used to go up to the roof of all of the schools I have been in. Even if it wasn't allowed in some of them." He then rests his chin on top of his knees and arms. "But my reason for going up to the roof wasn't to run away from things."

Shinji gazes at Nero with a bit of concern brimming. "Then why would you go to the roof?"

Nero smiles while looking down at the floor to his left out of the corner of his eyes. "I just liked being on the roof. I would read the bible, listen to music..." He then looks up at the sky again while tilting his head back. "And I would just enjoy looking at the sky. I like seeing how magnificent it is. Just by staring at it, I felt in peace with myself." Having said that, Nero slowly blinks his eyes, and when he opens them, there's a hint of sadness within them. "Although there are moments that the sky can look like hell instead of heaven."

Shinji's filled with confusion as he thinks to himself, "What's that suppose to mean?"

Nero keeps looking at the sky and then asks with a bit of curiosity, "Shinji...?"

Shinji hesitates for a moment due to Nero suddenly saying his name and then responds with an unsure tone, "Yeah?"

Nero looks at Shinji out of the corner of his eyes and says with no hesitation, "Why are you so weak?"

Shinji's in shock as he takes a step back and thinks, "W-Weak? But... Why would he ask me that?"

Right after the completion of that thought, Nero responds as if he had read Shinji's mind, "The reason why I ask is because when you and Asuka fought against the enemy, you two took a pretty long time to defeat it. With your and her level of skill, you two should have beaten it first."

Nervousness quickly takes over Shinji's expression while looking away from Nero. "Well... The thing was... I actually let Asuka take the lead in attacking it. We had agreed that when the time was right, I would attack."

Nero gives Shinji a criticizing look as he thinks, "He can't be serious. He's willing to wait for her command or until she's in trouble for him to decide to help out." He then suddenly stands up and faces Shinji with a serious stare. "Then answer me this. Why wait for her signal when you both ganging up on the enemy is much easier? Though, she's more than capable to defeat it by herself if given enough time."

Shinji looks at Nero with a pitiful expression. "Because she asked me to let her handle it."

Nero thinks to himself while being a bit annoyed, "There he goes again. Doing only what he's told and not thinking independently." He then sighs with his eyes closed as he lowers his head with thoughts going through his mind, "This is one of those things that really annoy me about him."

Shinji's greatly concerned by the look on Nero's face while taking a step towards him. "Is there something wrong?"

Nero quickly looks at Shinji with a fake smile. "Nothing's wrong." He then turns around to face towards where the door that leads back downstairs and says with a calm tone, "Class will be resuming soon. We should head down." After saying that, Nero starts to walk towards the door.

Worry rapidly consumes Shinji as he extends out his right arm towards Nero a little. "Hold on!"

Nero immediately stops walking in response to Shinji's outburst. After that, he turns to look at Shinji with curiosity brimming while standing sideways with his left foot towards Shinji. "What's up?"

Shinji puts his right hand down while looking down at the floor. He then clenches his right fist as he tries to keep himself from crying. "You're right about me being weak! I don't think for myself and I'm just a big coward!"

After hearing that, Nero just gives Shinji a bland look. Shinji then starts to sob while still looking at the floor. "I'm so pathetic! I can't even tell Mari to stop trying to come between me and Asuka! Even though I know it really bothers Asuka that I'm not doing anything!" He closes his eyes as a few tears fall down his face.

Nero's eyes widen while slightly slanting his head to the right with curiosity returning. "Shinji... Could it be that you're starting to have feelings for Mari?" He then makes a firm expression. "That could be the reason why you don't want to tell her to stop. Maybe, you want her instead of Asuka."

Shinji quickly looks at Nero in shock due to what he just said and then responds with a defensive tone while being very upset, "How could you ask me that?! You and everyone else know I love Asuka! I would never have feelings for anyone else! Especially Mari!"

Nero smiles as he chuckles a little while thinking, "Shinji... You really are pathetic. You can't even be honest with yourself. Even though you love Asuka... There's always a possibility that love changes..." He then turns around and says to Shinji with no real emotion, "Sorry. I should know better. But please... Don't cry, Shinji. It irritates me when I see you cry." Having said that, Nero walks towards the door and goes downstairs.

Shinji gets confused by what Nero said as he had stopped crying and says to himself, "But... He's never even seen me cry before... So, why would it irritate him?"

The scene ends and the rest of the day continue on until it ends. A few weeks then go by as the children have become completely accustomed to school life once again. Then one day, at the beginning of the school week as they were relaxing in the apartment, they were notified by Kaji, who had returned from his search for SEELE's hideout, that they will be going on a trip to a special place with him during the upcoming weekend. He had explained to them that the trip was for them to experience something new and would be like a little reward for how well they have been doing against SEELE and in school. As a result, the children are looking forward to the trip while some of them are trying to imagine where they could possibly be going. They just have to hope SEELE doesn't launch another attack while they're gone.

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Hmmm... I haven't ended an episode like that in a long time. I kind of don't like ending an episode with an explanation instead of ending it by making the scene cut to black. Whatever, I guess that ending will have to do. I've decided that I will be using my rip off idea in the next episode. I hope you guys like it. Oh, shit! I almost forgot to explain my reason for the A-2 class still having the same teacher from the 8th Grade! The reason is quite simple; I didn't feel like creating another teacher in replacing him since he was never a big deal. So I thought it would be best just to keep him as their teacher. Well, I hope you all liked the episode.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	13. Episode 13

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

Here's the rip-off episode! I would like to thank all of you for your patience and for still reading my story. I had to think a lot about how to piece this episode together since I am ripping off from the Rebuild Of Eva, but I think I figured out how to make it fit perfectly with the overall image I have for this series. I just hope that you all like it. I give all credit to the part I'm ripping off to Anno and Gainax. Thank you so much. Enjoy, everyone!

Episode 13: The Dream Of Restoration

The school week goes by fairly quick as the children are still wondering where they will be going for their trip with Kaji. Sadly, Misato won't be able to go with them due to her having a lot of work to do at NERV during the weekend. Before everyone realized it, the weekend had finally arrived and they're all quite excited. The scene commences with the plane that Kaji and the children are in having arrived at the place Kaji had told them about.

After arriving, the children are surprised that the place they're at is the Sea Life Reservation that holds what remains of the world's sea creatures. Right now, they're in the upper level while being outside as they wait to be let into the facility. For this occasion, Shinji's wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt that's white in the bottom half while from the neck to the shoulders is light blue. He has the sleeves rolled-up to his elbows while wearing yellow khaki shorts that don't reach his knees. Kensuke's wearing a plain white t-shirt and brown khaki shorts while Touji wears a dark blue shirt and white basketball shorts.

In Nero's case, he's wearing black denim jeans and a grey, long-sleeved t-shirt. Mari wears a white polo shirt with small, black spots and blue jeans while also wearing a light brown jacket over the shirt. Hikari and Rei are wearing pretty much the same thing, which are blue denim shorts and a plain shirt. The only difference is that Hikari's shirt is yellow while Rei's shirt is blue. Asuka's wearing a white V-neck shirt with a red silk coat over it and black short shorts with white spots on it. And last but not least, Kaji's wearing the same thing he normally wears.

Kensuke holds his camera as he's looking around with it. As he does this, he's running from different spots of the outside level so he can see everything with excitement brimming. "This place is huge and pretty cool! Not as cool as a Naval Fleet, but it's a real close second!" While Kensuke continues to run around with excitement, Rei watches Kensuke with her hands behind her back as she's giggling softly to herself due to her being amused by the way he's acting.

Shinji stands on Asuka's right with a light smile on his face as he's looking in front of him. "I'm happy that we get to do something like this together."

Asuka looks at Shinji with a happiness radiating and nods in agreement. "Yeah, this is great! We didn't have to take our synchronization test today and we don't even have to worry about SEELE attacking since we kicked their asses not too long ago!" She then places her left hand on her hip. "They would have to be stupid to try anything!"

Touji stands behind Shinji and Asuka while holding Hikari's right hand with his left hand. He then says to Asuka and Shinji with a content smile, "Hell yeah! We don't have to worry 'bout any of that annoying crap!" Touji looks at Hikari. "I can just enjoy myself with my girl!"

Hikari blushes as she's looking at Touji and says with a pleased tone, "Oh, Suzuhara."

As Touji tries to be romantic with Hikari, Mari watches Shinji and Asuka while standing on Kaji's left with a mild smile. Kaji then looks at Mari with a bit of curiosity brimming. "This is a shock, Mari. For once you're giving Shinji and Asuka some space to spend time together."

Mari looks at him out of the corner of her eyes. "Don't expect it to last." She then giggles softly as Kaji smiles and rolls his eyes while slowly shaking his head in slight disapproval.

Then, the focus turns to Nero, who's sitting on a rail that's a bit of a distance behind Kaji and from the others. He's talking on his cellular in French with his right hand firmly holding his cellular while watching the others with an emotionless expression as his left hand is tucked under his right arm. *Side Note: I will write the translation of what he's saying in French at the end of each sentence, and in the case of the appearance of Nero's cellular, it would look similar to a silver Blackberry that slides open in a vertical angle to talk into* "Je suis actuellement à la réservation Sea Life. (I'm currently at the Sea Life Reservation)"

After saying that, Nero pauses for a moment as he listens to the person he's talking to and responds. "Je sais. (I know) Je n'ai pas été ici pendant un certain temps. (I haven't been here for quite some time)" Nero pauses again while turning his gaze towards the sky and then says, "Je comprends cela, mais c'est un peu difficile de le faire. (I understand that, but it's kind of difficult to do that)"

Nero closes his eyes while sighing to himself with his head lowered as he listens to what the person is saying. He then calmly says, "Très bien. (Alright) Je vais garder cela à l'esprit. (I'll keep that in mind) Au revoir. (Goodbye)" With that said, Nero hangs up while slowly opening his eyes and looks back at the direction the others are located. After that, he lightly smiles, gets off the rails and walks up next to Kaji's right.

Kaji looks at Nero out of the corner of his eyes and smiles. "I didn't know you had a cell phone."

Nero half-heartedly laughs with his eyes focused on Kaji while still holding his cellular in his right hand. "You never asked."

Mari giggles as she's leaning forward to look at Nero from Kaji's left with her hands behind her back. "Smart-ass."

Kaji looks back and forth between both Mari and Nero. He then looks in front of him towards the other children and says with a loud tone, "You guys will be going in pretty soon! I hope you guys have fun!"

In response, the other children quickly look at Kaji and nod while being quite excited. Nero then gives Kaji a skeptical look and says, "They won't be having any fun with the decontamination process."

Kaji quickly turns his attention towards Nero while being a bit surprised. "How do you know about that?!"

Nero chuckles softly while gently knocking on the side of his head with his right hand for a brief moment. "This isn't my first time being here. So I know what to expect." He then smiles at Kaji while putting his right hand into his pocket.

Mari's confused by Nero's words as she looks at him with her posture being upright. "Decontamination process? What's that suppose to mean?"

Nero looks at Mari with an amused smile while having both hands in his pocket. "You'll see."

With that said, the children were allowed to enter the facility. Although. like Nero had predicted, the others didn't enjoy the decontamination process one bit. They went through a montage of procedures so they would be considered "Clean" of any bacteria that would be harmful to the facility. Nero was the only one who wasn't bothered by the entire thing much. This being due to his previous experience, which actually peaked the curiosity of the other children. But they were to busy dealing with the irritation of the procedure to really concern themselves with asking him.

As they finish going through what Touji would call "Hell" multiple times during the process, they had to wear identical, white clothing that had been deemed sterile by the members of the facility. Interestingly enough, Nero's clothing was actually different from the others. His clothing is still white, but unlike the others' clothing, which is shorts and t-shirts, he's wearing pants and a long-sleeve shirt. Right now, everyone has entered the main resort of the facility, which is where all the sea creatures are located in multiple, different, illuminated tanks. The moment everyone sees the room, they all quickly spread out to look around with excitement.

Touji and Hikari stay together as they walk around while holding hands. As they do that, they're looking at the different tanks with amazement being noted on their faces. Meanwhile, Rei stands in front of a large, cylinder-shaped tank of small fishes that's located on the second floor of the room, which can be seen from the first floor. She watches that tank with a spaced out expression as Kensuke slowly walks up next to her right with a bit of curiosity being displayed. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Rei looks at Kensuke with a bit of confusion showing. "Penny for my thoughts?"

Kensuke chuckles a little and responds to Rei's confusion. "It's a way to ask what's on your mind."

Rei makes a slight expression of realization as she says, "Oh..." She then turns her attention back to the tank. "I was just remembering my experience in a tank like this."

After hearing what Rei said, Kensuke turns his attention towards the tank with a plain look on his face. "Yeah, you told me about it." He then gazes at Rei with a bit of concern. "Does it bother you to see this?"

Rei closes her eyes while smiling and shakes her head. After doing that, she looks at the tank with a gleam of joy in her eyes. "Not at all. This is beautiful."

Kensuke smiles while watching the joy that can obviously be seen on Rei's face. After that, he decides to gently grab onto Rei's right hand with his left hand and looks at the tank again while being quite content. "It sure is."

Mari suddenly appears while seeing Kensuke and Rei from the first floor with a light smile. As she does this, Mari thinks to herself, "If only I could be close to Shinji like that." She instantly realizes something and starts to look around with curiosity taking over. "Which reminds me... Where's Shinji and Asuka hiding?" Mari then smiles as she starts to walk around the facility in search of Shinji and Asuka.

In the meantime, Nero's standing in front of a giant tank that's filled with sea turtles with his forehead placed against the tank's glass. The palm of his hands are placed on the tank as well while Nero's spacing out and mutters, "It's been a long time since I've seen you guys. I really missed all of you." He then smiles lightly. "I'm still working on returning your home to the way it was. So please be patient."

Nero sees a small turtle swim up in front of him and decides to push his head away from the tank with his arms completely extended in front of him as his hands are still on the tank. "I promise that I won't give up." Having said that, he clenches his right hand into a fist while determination fills his face.

As Nero focuses his attention on the turtles, Shinji and Asuka are sitting on a metallic, round-shape bench with multiple ring pattern stretching throughout it. Both children face away from a giant tank that has different types of fishes in it while happily enjoying each other's company. Shinji has his right arm wrapped around Asuka's shoulder as the right side of his head is in contact with the left side of Asuka's while gazing at her out of the corner of his eyes.

Asuka contentedly smiles with her eyes closed and briefly giggles to herself. "I can't believe how daring you're being, Shinji. This is really unlike you."

Shinji responds with a content tone, "I have you to thank, Asuka. You've helped me become a better person."

Asuka looks at Shinji with pure happiness radiating from her face. "Same here. You're the best thing to have happened to me, Shinji."

Shinji slowly starts to move his head towards Asuka to kiss her with his eyes closed and thinks, "I'm so happy to hear her say that."

Asuka sees what he's going for and closes her eyes while preparing herself to receive his kiss. Shinji's then about to kiss her, but suddenly an image of Mari giving him a dazzlingly, beautiful smile on the school's roof comes through his mind. This causes him to be very surprised while instantly opening his eyes and stops himself from kissing Asuka.

A few seconds go by as Asuka continues to wait for Shinji's kiss and finally realizes that he's taking too long. After realizing that, she opens her eyes to look at him with a confused expression. "What's wrong?"

Shinji frantically shakes his head while seeming troubled by the thought he had. "N-Nothing, Asuka." He then smiles at her while trying to regain his composure. "I just slipped up a little."

Asuka smiles at him while being quite relieved. "Then try it again, and try not to slip up." She then giggles a little while covering her mouth with her left hand.

Shinji nods with a bit of confidence taking over and then takes a deep breath. After doing that, he tries to kiss Asuka again by leaning towards her. Asuka responds by closing her eyes again while smiling and waits to receive Shinji's kiss. Shinji then gets really close to kissing her while thinking to himself, "I love Asuka. What Nero said on the roof isn't true. I don't love anyone except Asuka."

Just as Shinji's about to kiss Asuka, he's suddenly interrupted by two members of the facility, who have walked up right in front of Shinji and Asuka. Their appearance varies a lot between the two since one is a man and the other is a woman. The most notable feature on both is that the man has a buzzed-style hair cut with his hair being dark brown while the woman has really short black hair that's combed backwards. Both of them are wearing lab coats with name-tags on the pocket that's to the left side of their chest and are about the same height as Kaji.

The male worker looks at Shinji with curiosity being displayed while reaching towards Shinji with his right hand. "You wouldn't happen to be Nero Akaya, would you?"

Shinji looks at the male worker with some surprise while Asuka's also looking at the male worker. He then shakes his head with a bit of concern brimming. "No, but how do you know Nero?"

The female worker that's standing to the left of the male worker makes a surprised expression while leaning a bit towards Shinji. "So you know Dr. Akaya?!"

Shinji and Asuka are both shocked by what the female worker said while yelling out at the same time, "Doctor?!"

With that outburst, Nero suddenly appears from the left side of the room while looking towards them. At the same time, his hands are in his pockets as he's smiling. "Guys. I told you, I would be wearing my customized clothing when I come here. How could you have not noticed him not wearing it?"

Both the male and female worker turns to their right to look at Nero with a wide smile taking over. They then yell out at the same time in excitement, "Dr. Akaya!" In response to the male and female worker's outburst, both Shinji and Asuka look at Nero while still being shocked at him being called doctor. The male worker then rushes up to Nero with the female worker following him. Afterwards, he extends out his right hand to Nero. "It's good to see you, Doctor!"

Nero pulls out his right hand from his pocket and shakes the extended hand of the male worker. "I'm glad to see that you remember me." After shaking the male worker's hand, Nero extends his right hand to the female worker, who gladly shakes it with her right hand.

As the female worker shakes Nero's hand, she says with a happy tone, "How could we ever forget?! We've made so much progress with your theory's to restore the world, and continuously give us more input is amazing! As we speak, we're working with quite a few of them!"

Nero retracts his hand after the female worker stops shaking it and puts it back into his pocket as he makes a modest expression. "Well, until it's restored, I can't really accept any credit, but it's nice to know there are people who appreciate what I've done."

The male worker suddenly laughs while tilting his head back for a moment. He then looks at Nero with confidence resonating with his eyes. "Everyone will appreciate it! The majority of your theories involve the restoration of the ocean, and once it returns to the way it was, the ecosystem will improve. The world will then revert back to normal, even though it's gradually going back to normal by itself, but with your theories, it will revert back much quicker!"

Nero nods in agreement. "Alright. Well, I came here to enjoy the facility, but next time we can talk more about the issue, okay?"

Both the male and female worker nod in response to Nero's request. They then say their goodbyes and leave while Nero watches them leave with content showing. Once the two workers are out of sight, Nero turns his attention towards Shinji and Asuka with an indifferent look suddenly taking over his face.

Shinji stands up with a hint of curiosity displayed towards Nero. "Why didn't you tell us that you're so famous?"

Nero unexpectedly smiles at Shinji with his head slanted to the right. "Because it's not that important to mention." He then makes a cold expression while fixing his head's posture. "Would it change the way you see or think of me?"

Shinji slowly shakes his head while being quite sad due to Nero's question. "No, it wouldn't." He then smiles with confidence. "You're Nero. That will never change." Shinji suddenly gets a bit nervous while scratching the back of his head with his left hand. "Though, we would like to know more about you."

Asuka quickly stands up next to Shinji's left with her eyes focused on Nero. As she does this, she smiles at Nero and nods in agreement. "He's right! We definitely would!"

Nero's a bit surprised due to what Shinji and Asuka said. He then smiles at them with a hint of relief. "Good to know." After saying that, Nero turns away from them and walks towards the direction he had come from. Both Asuka and Shinji watch Nero leave while being a bit concerned due to him walking away without saying another word.

After that, some time goes by and eventually the children are done with looking at all of the different types of sea animals. They're now in the upper level they were before while wearing their casual clothing since they aren't planning on going back in the facility. They're currently spread out with Shinji and Asuka in the front region of the facility while Kensuke, Rei, Touji and Hikari have gone to the back region. For some odd reason, Nero and Mari are nowhere in sight, but that won't last for long.

Asuka and Shinji are sitting on the floor while being really close to each other. They're looking towards the ocean as Asuka watches it with a somber expression and says, "It's so sad that the world looks like this."

Shinji glances at Asuka with concern and then looks away while sadness quickly takes over his person. "Yeah..."

Asuka suddenly curls her body up into a ball while faintly smiling. "It would be amazing if the world reverted back to the way it was. All of the sea animals looked so beautiful and for the ocean to look blue instead of red would just be incredible."

Shinji focuses his attenting on Asuka again while nodding in agreement with a small smile. "It sure would." He then turns his attention towards the ocean. "Although it's hard to imagine the ocean was ever blue."

Asuka looks at Shinji while maintaining her faint smile. "Yeah... But I still want it to go back to the way it was. I want to have a child that will be able to see it."

Due to what Asuka had just said, Shinji instantly turns bright red while being quite surprised. Asuka then puts her legs down while placing her hands on the floor and starts to lean towards Shinji. While doing this, she closes her eyes and pucker up her lips a little for a kiss. Shinji's still a bit red as he hesitantly leans towards her to kiss her while thinking, "Alright. This time kiss her. Don't let anything stop you." He then closes his eyes as he's about to kiss her.

Suddenly, Mari appears behind Asuka and Shinji with her right hand on her hip as she's smiling in a sinister manner. "Am I interrupting something?" She then giggles a little.

Shinji instantly stops himself from trying to kiss Asuka and turns his body towards the left to look at Mari, which results in his body facing towards Asuka, while being very surprised by Mari's sudden appearance. "Mari?!"

Asuka drops her head down while letting out an agitated sigh and then slowly opens her eyes with annoyance being noted as thinks, "Great... She just had to ruin the moment and get in the way." Afterwards, Asuka snaps her head to look at Mari with an intense glare and says with a sharp, irritated tone, "What do you want?! We were busy!"

Mari giggles a little bit while making an innocent expression. "Really? I couldn't tell. I just wanted to finally get the chance to spend some time with Shinji." She then lifts up her right hand with its index finger pointed upward. "I let you two have a lot of time together, so now it's my turn." As she said that last part, Mari had pointed her index finger at her face.

Asuka grits her teeth while still glaring at Mari as she turns her body to the right. This results in her body facing towards Shinji as well. She then yells out with an upset tone, "I don't know what's going on through your messed up head, but you need to get over that fantasy of you ever being with MY Shinji!"

Mari smiles arrogantly while tilting her head slightly to the left. "It's not a fantasy." Curiosity then takes over Mari's expression while putting her right hand down and leans towards Asuka with a sly smile. "Hey, Asuka. Is Shinji having a hard time kissing you?"

Shinji is surprised by what Mari said as he thinks to himself, "How does she know about that?!"

At the same time, Asuka gets quite annoyed and yells out while getting a bit closer to Mari, "No! He just slipped up once when he was going to kiss me! He was just about to though until YOU showed up!"

Mari raises her right eyebrow while maintaining her curiosity. "Is that so? That's not what I saw."

Shinji starts to shake nervously while being quite worried and thinks, "She saw me hesitate?! But I didn't even realize she was around!"

A hint of confusion can be seen on Asuka's face while pulling away from Mari. She then looks at Shinji and says with a bit of concern in her voice, "What's she talking about? You said, you slipped up." Asuka becomes a bit upset as she leans towards Shinjii. "Did you lie about what kept you from kissing me?"

Mari watches Shinji with a proud smile. "He definitely hesitated when he was about to kiss you. I just don't know why he did."

Shinji glances at Mari out of the corner of his left eye with stress brimming as he thinks, "Please stop, Mari...! You're making things worse!"

Asuka gives Mari a look of disbelief for a moment. She then looks back at Shinji with concern returning while leaning a bit more towards him. "Why did you hesitate, Shinji?!"

Mari's about to say something, but suddenly feels someone's arms wrap around her waist and they lift her off the ground. This causes Mari to be startled while looking around in panic. "What the...?!"

As Mari's lifted off the floor, Shinji and Asuka are surprised while they're focused on Mari and the person who just grabbed onto her. It's then revealed that Nero's the one holding Mari up while turning his entire body to have him and her face away from Asuka and Shinji.

After that, Nero puts Mari down while maintaining his hold on her and makes her lean forward a bit with their bodies in contact. Mari then looks at Nero with surprise showing while slightly blushing due to their contact. "Nero?! Where the hell did you come from?!"

Nero looks at Mari out of the corner of his eyes with seriousness resonating within them. As he does this, Nero's left cheek is in contact with Mari's right cheek as he responds in a whisper. "What are you doing?"

Mari makes another innocent expression while pretending to be confused as she whispers back at Nero, "What do you mean? I'm just telling them the truth. Shinji shouldn't lie."

Nero narrows his eyes with a hint of annoyance brimming as he whispers into Mari's right ear, "Maybe you should just leave them alone. If Shinji has feelings for you, he won't be able to deny it for long. That's human nature, but if you keep pushing things instead of being patient, or even accepting that Shinji actually doesn't have ANY feelings for you, you'll just make his life harder." He then positions his head to have his cheek in contact with Mari's again.

Mari smiles in response to what Nero said and then says with a bit of curiosity in her voice, "It seems like you care about Shinji quite a bit... Or maybe, you're concerned about Asuka."

Nero raises his right eyebrow as he gives Mari a questionable look due what she just said. "You mind explaining that to me?"

Mari turns her body a little bit to the right to have her face in front of Nero's while being very close and looks intently into his eyes. "Asuka has defended you with the whole comparison thing. And it seems like after your little experience with her, you two developed a friendship that matters to the both of you quite a bit."

Nero gives Mari a cold stare as he plainly responds. "I can see what you're getting at, but think about it. I look like Shinji. That's why she treats me nicely. Even though she may not actually be doing it with that in mind, but subconsciously she is because she doesn't know me. There's no way she would be this nice to me if I didn't look like Shinji."

Mari makes a sympathetic expression and says with a bit of arrogance in her voice, "It could be that you're wrong."

Nero's eyes widen while being a bit surprised from both what Mari said and the expression she had while saying it. He then gives her a serious look as he suddenly releases his grip on her. As a result, Mari falls down onto her ass due to her not having any balance when Nero let her go. After falling, discomfort can be seen on Mari's face as her eyes are closed while she rubs the upper part of her ass with her right hand due to the pain it's feeling.

At the same time, Shinji and Asuka are both surprised at what they just saw while being a bit confused since they didn't hear Nero and Mari's conversation at all. Nero then looks at Mari with a light smile while walking in front of her and stands in a sideways position with his left foot forward. "This time I wasn't so nice to let you go gently."

Mari looks up at him while being a bit confused and thinks, "He makes it sound like this wasn't the first time he held me." She then has a sudden flash of memory of their first meeting when they were little. This causes her to be in shock while thinking, "Oh my God! This isn't the first time I met him! He's that guy I met the first time I went to the 1st Branch! He's the one I was looking for!"

Nero continues to smile while putting his hands into his pockets and tilts his head slightly towards Mari. "By the expression you just made, I'm guessing you finally remembered me." He then turns his body to face towards his right while looking at Mari out of the corner of his eyes from behind himself. "It's about time."

After saying that, Nero turns his focus to look ahead of himself and then starts to walk. While doing that, Nero's head is tilted back with his hands behind his head as he says with a cheerful tone, "Remember what I said! Be patient!"

With that said, Mari watches Nero walk away while being in shock about finally remembering who he is. She then suddenly smiles a little bit as she turns her attention towards Shinji and Asuka while both of them look back at her with a bit of confusion still being present. Mari then gets up from the floor while still smiling with sincerity brimming towards both of them. "I'll leave you two alone."

Both Shinji and Asuka are in shock due to how unexpected it was for Mari to say that. Mari then swiftly and elegantly turns around to start walking away while thinking, "Nero's right. If Shinji has feelings for me, he'll come to me." Some sadness rapidly takes over as Mari looks at the floor and says softly to herself, "Although, I really don't want to wait." She then looks up ahead of herself and walks away.

In the meantime, Asuka's still in shock while watching Mari leave. She then calmly looks at Shinji and says with a slightly concerned tone, "Umm, Shinji?"

Shinji gives Asuka a concerned look. "Yeah, Asuka?"

Asuka gulps and takes a deep breath after doing that. She then makes a determined expression while leaning a bit towards Shinji. "Kiss me, and this time don't hesitate."

In response to Asuka's request, Shinji nervously nods at her and then slowly leans towards her while Asuka closes her eyes and waits to receive his kiss once again. After slowly easing into it, Shinji's lips finally come into contact with Asuka's lips and this causes Asuka to smile contentedly as she's filled with happiness since he finally kissed her. Shinji keeps on kissing her while his face starts to turn a slight shade of red as he closes his eyes. He then slowly pulls away from her after a few seconds go by as he still enjoyed the passion they just shared. After that, Asuka slowly opens her eyes to look at him and smiles at him while saying in a joyful tone, "Oh, Shinji..."

Shinji nods with his eyes still closed with sincerity brimming and says with a content tone, "Oh, Mari..."

Shock instantly takes over Asuka's expression while her jaw drops and looks at Shinji in disbelief. Shinji then realizes what he said, quickly opens his eyes with panic being displayed and gasps a little bit. Asuka then yells out while being very upset as she leans towards Shinji, "You just called me Mari!"

Shinji puts his hands in front of Asuka while trying to calm her down as he's nervously shaking his head. "I didn't mean to! It was an accident, Asuka!"

Asuka quickly responds with anger showing. "How could you ever get us confused unless...!" Suddenly, Asuka realizes something while pulling back a little with tears starting to form underneath her eyes. She then gets closer to Shinji with a distraught expression and yells out, "Unless you love her!"

Shinji leans backwards a bit with a stressful look on his face while pulling his hands back towards himself due to Asuka's closeness. "A-Asuka...! I-I don't...!

Asuka glares at him while being even more upset. "Is that the reason why you hesitated earlier?! Was it because you were thinking of her?!"

Shinji frantically shakes his head with a familiar, pitiful look starting to emerge. "Asuka, I...!"

Asuka suddenly screams out with her eyes closed as her head's pointed downward, "SHUT UP, STUPID SHINJI!" She then opens her eyes with tears falling down her face while clenching her right hand into a fist and relentlessly punches Shinji right in the privates.

Right after that, Shinji yells out in pain while holding his privates with both hands and leans forward quite a bit with a pain filled look being shown on his face. After swiftly retracting her fist, Asuka continues to be upset as she gets up and stares at Shinji with disgust. She then quickly turns away from him and runs off with her eyes being hidden by her hair so she isn't seen crying. As Asuka runs off, Shinji reaches out towards her with his right hand and yells out in concern, "Asuka! Wait!"

With Shinji's plea, the scene suddenly changes to focus on Nero, who's in the west side of the facility while being by himself on the second floor. That floor is like a roof and its square-shaped while being quite spacious due to there not being anything other than a satellite a few feet away from Nero's back. The area has railings wrapped around the edges of it, but aren't really that high up.

Nero's leaning on the rails while facing towards the ocean that's on the right side of the facility. He currently has his left arm under his chin while it rests on the railings and his right arm's extended out over the rail at the same time. Nero's staring at his right hand while also seeing the ocean with a spaced out expression and says softly to himself, "Just imagine. The world being blue again instead of this disgusting red." He then nods to himself while being quite confident. "It will happen. I'm sure of it."

A hint of surprise instantly takes over Nero' expression as he hears someone crying. After that, he turns his head to the left while putting his right hand down. He then sees that Asuka's crying at a small distance away from him and this causes him to be quite concerned as he mumbles, "Asuka...?"

Asuka continues to cry while facing away from Nero due to her being at the railing that's facing towards the front of the facility. She hasn't realized that Nero's behind her while her arms are crossed on top of the railings. At the same time, Asuka's hands are clenched into fists while she's still quite upset over what happened with Shinji.

Meanwhile, Nero slowly walks up to Asuka and stands right behind her with worry resonating within his eyes as he watches her with his head tilted towards the left. "Is there something wrong, Asuka?"

Due to suddenly hearing Nero's voice, Asuka's quite startled as she quickly turns her head to the right to look at him with surprise. She then quickly turns her head back around and starts to wipe away the tears from her face with her left hand while saying with a strained voice due to her crying, "E-Everything's fine, N-Nero."

After hearing Asuka's response, Nero walks around her with lack of emotion showing. He then leans his back against the railings to the left of Asuka while looking at her. "Don't say such an obvious lie. What happened?"

Asuka looks at Nero out of the corner of her eyes while putting her left hand down. Sadness then quickly takes over her expression as she returns her focus towards the front of herself with her eyes looking down a little. After that, Asuka says with a somber tone, "Shinji called me... Mari."

Nero's eyes widen from being a bit surprised by what Asuka said and says with a hint of disbelief, "Really?"

All Asuka can do in response to Nero's question due to her still being sad is nod with dullness in her eyes. Depression then dwells within Nero as he slightly lowers his head with his eyes still focused on Asuka. "I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't think he would be so stupid to do such a thing."

Asuka giggles a little bit while still being filled with sadness. "That's what I called him. I had promised I wouldn't call him stupid or anything like that anymore, but after that, he really deserved it."

Nero nods while turning his gaze in front of himself with a faint smile. "I agree."

Asuka smiles a little as she says with a slightly amused tone, "He also deserved me punching him in the nuts."

Nero suddenly cringes for a moment after hearing what Asuka said with his head lowered. He then looks at her with a moderately pained expression since he knows the pure pain that comes with getting hit there. "That right there is debatable."

Asuka turns herself to face Nero with sadness emitting from her and says with a sincere tone, "I love Shinji, and he said that he loves me too. I don't know how he could have feelings for Mari if that's supposed to be true."

Nero gives out a sincere smile while straightening his posture a bit. "There are moments that people's feelings can change for no apparent reason. I'm sure he loves you, but it's possible for him to love someone else too."

Asuka looks towards the left side while responding with a sad tone. "I'm so mad at him." Tears then start to slowly fall down her face again while she lightly bites her bottom lip.

Nero takes a deep breath with his eyes closed and drops his head down once again. He did that due to feeling sad about Asuka's words and demeanor. After a few seconds, Nero opens his eyes and turns his body to face Asuka with a caring expression. "It's okay to be mad. Just remember that he does love you, and that you're very important to him."

Asuka looks at Nero while being very surprised. She then smiles at him while wiping her tears away with her left hand again. "You're right. Thanks, Nero." She then puts her hand down and keeps smiling at him with joy radiating from her.

Nero nods at Asuka with a pleased smile and then says in German with his head tilted slightly to the left while being a bit backwards, "Gern geschehen und wissen, dass wenn Sie jemals brauchen jemanden zum Reden, können Sie jederzeit mit mir reden. (You're welcome and know that if you ever need someone to talk to, you can talk to me anytime)" Nero then straightens his head while still smiling at Asuka.

Asuka nods at him as well while not realizing at first that Nero was talking in German. After a few seconds, the red-head finally realizes it with astonishment quickly taking over as she gives out a small gasp. She then leans towards him a bit while pointing at him with her right hand. "Mein Gott! You just spoke in German, didn't you?!"

Nero chuckles lightly while taking his hands out of his pockets to place them behind his head. "Took you a little bit to catch it."

Asuka gives out an amazed look while putting her right hand down and gets a bit closer to him. "I had no idea you could speak German!"

Nero looks away from her by turning his body to the left. "Well, of course. I've never mentioned it so no one knows I can speak it." He then looks at Asuka out of the corner of his eyes.

Asuka tries to calm herself down while being very curious. "How much German do you know? Your accent was really good."

Nero looks towards the sky and says while trying not to sound like he's bragging, "I'm actually fluent. I can also speak several other languages without a problem." After that, he looks at Asuka out of the corner of his eyes again while being a bit ashamed. "But Spanish and Latin are the only languages I know that I'm not too good with. I trip up with them a lot." He then chuckles a little.

Asuka's quite amazed by Nero's capabilities. She's then filled with determination and says with a challenging tone, "Then prove to me how good your German is! What does 'Asuka ist der größte Pilot der Welt', mean?"

Nero chuckles as he faces her and then says with a smart-ass tone, "That's SO easy... Asuka's the greatest pilot in the world. Which, that's debatable too." He then gives her a sly smile.

Asuka covers her mouth with her left hand while giggling a little. She then puts her hand down, smiles at Nero and says with a determined tone, "We'll see about that!"

Nero gives her a sincere smile while his eyes gleam a little due to the sun's light. "I'm happy that you're laughing. It's always better to laugh than to cry."

Asuka keeps smiling, nods in agreement and says in German. "Es ist sicher! (It sure is!)"

The scene ends right there and some time goes by. The children and Kaji eventually were ready to leave, so they headed back home on the plane. On their way, there was an uneasy air among them since Asuka was still upset with Shinji. She had decided to sit next to Nero on the plane instead of Shinji. This gave Mari the opportunity to try to find out what was going on. Unfortunately for Mari, Shinji wasn't in the mood to talk since he was very concerned about Asuka. Kaji and the other children were worried about the entire thing. They were also surprised when they overheard Asuka and Nero talking in German. They were even more surprised that they would hear Asuka randomly laugh while looking like she was enjoying herself.

Once they got home, Nero had immediately gone to his room and Kaji had decided to go to NERV to see how Misato's doing. After Kaji leaves, the children who are worried about Shinji and Asuka's relationship confront Asuka in the living room. Meanwhile, Shinji's in the bathroom taking a bath and Mari's on her couch with her legs crossed as she's observing them.

Rei stands in front of Asuka with concern being displayed on her face. At the same time, Rei's standing in front of the television while Asuka stands in front of the couch that faces towards the television. Rei then says with her usual bland tone, "What's going on between you and Shinji?"

Asuka looks away from Rei by turning her head to the right with irritation noted. She then says with a depressed tone, "That idiot hurt me."

Rei's quite surprised by Asuka's words as she thinks to herself, "She insulted him. I thought she was going to stop doing that."

Hikari walks up next to Asuka from her left while being quite sad. "What did he do?"

Asuka turns her attention towards Hikari for a moment while trying not to cry. She then looks towards Mari with a hint of seriousness mixed in with anger brimming. "He called me Mari after we kissed."

Mari's completely surprised while smiling due to finding what Asuka just said to be a bit flattering. "Really?! Was it right after I left?!"

Some tears start to fall down Asuka's face as she nods while being a bit disgusted due to Mari's reaction. She then quickly turns away from Mari with her head lowered down to look at the floor. After that, Asuka closes her eyes and runs off to her room. Hikari then makes a worried expression as she watches Asuka leave.

Right after that, Shinji comes out of the bathroom with his eyes focused on the floor while wearing a dark shirt and khaki shorts. He's drying his hair with a white towel that's held by both of his hands as he looks up and sees that everyone is looking at him from the living room. This causes Shinji to become a bit confused as he innocently asks, "What's going on?"

In response to Shinji's question, Rei gives him an upset look and then walks up to him while clenching her right hand into a fist. Once she reached Shinji, she quickly opens her right hand as she slaps him in the face with it. This action stuns Shinji as he's looking towards the right due to the force of the slap. Afterwards, Shinji places his left hand on the cheek Rei slapped while quickly turning his head to look at her with an alarmed expression. "R-Rei?"

Rei momentarily grits her teeth as she tries to hold back her tears. She then says with an upset tone, "How could you do such a thing, Ikari?! You and Asuka are supposed to be together forever! How could you call her by another girl's name?!"

Shinji puts his hand down while looking away from Rei with sadness overtaking his face. "I don't know, Rei... It just happened..."

Hikari gives Shinji a serious look while being very upset by what he just said. She then points at him with her right hand and says with a commanding tone, "Go in there and make things right, Shinji!" Hikari promtply walks towards Shinji with her right hand lowered and then puts both hands on her waist while leaning a bit towards Shinji with irritation showing. "You hurt her and now you have to go make things better."

As a result of Hikari's order, Shinji looks at her with a hint of nervousness brimming and then hesitantly nods in response. After doing that, he turns towards his room and goes inside while Touji watched him leave. He then looks at Hikari with a bit of concern. "Ya think he'll be able to fix everythin'?"

All Hikari can do in response to Touji's question is shake her head without looking at him while being sad by the entire thing that has just transpired.

Meanwhile, Shinji enters the room and sees that Asuka's lying on her side of the bed while facing away from the door. Asuka had quickly changed into a light blue tank-top while wearing dark blue denim shorts. After Shinji sees Asuka's positioning, he becomes very sad while slowly walking up to her side of the bed, which is the left side. Asuka hears the footsteps that Shinji makes as she's holding onto the center of her shirt with her right hand, which is where Asuka's chest is located. At the same time, she's very upset and tightens her grip on her shirt due to the anger that's dwelling within her.

Shinji gets down on his knees on the floor that's next to Asuka's side of the bed. Then with both hands, he grabs onto her right shoulder and arm while looking down at the floor with sadness in his eyes. "Asuka..."

Tears start to fall down Asuka's face again while she turns her head towards the right and sees Shinji out of the corner of her right eye. After feeling the movement Asuka made, Shinji says with sadness in his voice, "I'm sorry, Asuka. I have feelings for Mari. There's something about her that... Just makes me have these feelings. I can't really explain it except that while I'm with you, I feel like I need to change to make you happy. But Mari says she likes me for who I am... And it doesn't matter to her if I change or not..."

As a result of what she just heard, Asuka's very surprised for a moment. She then gets really mad as she quickly sits up while turning to face Shinji with an enraged glare. At the same time, Asuka had removed her right hand from her chest and has it placed on the part of the bed that's to her right. "What?!"

Due to Asuka's reaction, Shinji looks at her with a horrified expression while pulling his arms away from her. Asuka then leans towards him while still being really mad. "You think I didn't accept you for who you are?! Even though I thought you were an idiot, I liked you from the very beginning despite that! I was just trying to help you because I care about you!"

Having said that, Asuka briefly pauses while wiping some of the tears off her face with her right hand. Afterwards, she intensely stares him down while saying, "You helped me because you care about me, right?! Or is it that you wouldn't be with me if I had stayed the way I was?!"

Shinji places his right hand on the floor behind him while pulling away from Asuka a little as he's quite scared of her. "It's nothing like that, Asuka!" He then leans a bit towards Asuka again with some confidence rising and says, "I wanted to be with you for a long time, and I'm really happy that I'm with you!"

Asuka suddenly gets on all fours while leaning even more towards Shinji with anger still being displayed. "Oh, really?! Then explain it to me, Stupid Shinji!" She then puts her face really close to his while saying, "Explain to me what made you have feelings for her!"

Shinji sits down on the floor while trying to back away from her a bit with nervousness increasingly showing throughout his face. "Well... Uhhh..."

Asuka suddenly punches the bed with her right fist while still glaring at him and yells out, "Don't hesitate! Just tell me!"

After hearing what Asuka said, Shinji looks down at the floor while being overcome by sadness as he says, "It happened the day you were sick."

That answer surprises Asuka while being a bit stunned by what she heard. Shinji then says while being a bit ashamed, "Mari and me got to talk quite a bit that day. I found out a lot about her and I told her a lot of things about me too. I actually enjoyed talking to her, just like I enjoy talking to you."

Shinji slowly lifts up his head to look at Asuka with a faint smile. "But the difference between you and her is that no matter what, I can be myself around her. I don't have to be afraid of her not liking how I am as a person."

Due to Shinji's statement, Asuka's in shock while her body begins to shake a little. She then becomes very upset, places her right hand on the center of her chest and yells out, "You can be yourself with me!"

Shinji becomes a bit sad as he slowly shakes his head a little. "No, Asuka... You can deal with how I am for a while, but I can tell that there are moments, just like before 3rd Impact, that I get on your nerves. You want me to change, just like I want you to change because I hate how you treated me. I know you're still like that. You started to insult me again and make me feel bad."

Asuka yells out in response while holding back her tears from escaping once again, "Because you called me Mari! Did you think I would be alright with that?!"

Shinji looks down at the floor and says with an apologetic tone, "You're right. You have every right to be mad at me. But I don't want you to hurt me back just because I have feelings for Mari." He looks at Asuka with a pleading expression while leaning a bit towards her. "I still love you though! It isn't like those feelings never existed!"

Asuka gets depressed after hearing what Shinji said as she gets up on her knees with her head tilted a little towards the right. "I love you too, but... I'm not going to share you, Shinji... And I'm not going to make you stop having feelings for Mari because I know you would do that for me and probably secretly hate me for it." She then swiftly turns around and lies on the bed with her back to Shinji. "We'll settle this tomorrow. I just want to go to sleep now." Asuka pauses for a moment while closing her eyes, takes a deep breath and then says after letting out a somber sigh, "Good night, Shinji."

Shinji makes a sorrowful expression, looks down at the floor and mumbles, "Good night... Asuka."

With that being the last thing said, the day turns into night and it's now pass midnight. Shinji had eventually gone to bed with Asuka, but kept his distance from her so there's no possibility of making things worse. Everyone else is obviously in their respective rooms while sleeping. Then, all of a sudden, Asuka slowly starts to wake up.

Asuka slowly opens her eyes with a sleepy expression on her face. She sees that Shinji's asleep while facing towards her and says softly, "I want to forgive him, but a part of me feels like I can't."

After saying that, Asuka slowly sits up while still looking at him. She then turns her body towards the room's door and gently gets up from the bed. As she does this, Shinji continues to sleep without being disturbed by the bed's slight movement. Asuka glances at Shinji for a moment with sadness filling her eyes and then turns her attention back to the door. She walks out of the room, but doesn't go far and decides to stop right in front of Nero's door. Then, with a small amount of hesitation, Asuka slowly slides the door open quite a bit with her left hand.

Asuka peeks into the room through the opening she made by sticking her head in a little while leaning forward. After doing that, she sees Nero, who's lying on his bed, and then becomes quite curious and whispers to him, "Nero."

Unfortunately for Asuka, Nero doesn't hear her due to him listening to his music player while facing away from Asuka by lying on his right side and continues to sleep. A hint of concern then takes over Asuka's expression as she says with a bit of a louder volume while still whispering, "Nero! You awake?!"

Nero slowly opens his eyes while having a dazed expression. He then slowly reaches for his earphone that's in his left ear with his left hand and grabs onto it. After doing so, Nero pulls it out and slightly turns his head to the left to look at who's calling him. He's a bit confused when he realizes that it's Asuka who's calling him and says in a low volume, "Do you realize what time it is?"

Asuka shamefully smiles while nodding at him and says in a low volume as well, "I know, but you said whenever I needed someone to talk to that I could talk to you."

Nero suddenly lets out a soft sigh with his eyes closed and head lowered for a brief moment. He then calmly smiles while looking at Asuka again. "Sure. I did say that, after all." Nero sits up with his legs crossed, head lowered again and motions Asuka to come over with his left hand. After seeing Nero's gesture, Asuka's very content as she completely slides the door open and begins to enter the room. Once she enters the room with her eyes focused on Nero, Asuka closes the door behind her and then slowly walks up to his bed. She stops next to the bed while some concern starts to be displayed on her face. In response to Asuka's concern, Nero casually moves his body towards the right, pats on the left side of his bed with his left hand and looks up at Asuka out of the corner of his eyes with a light smile. "Sit down."

Asuka hesitates for a moment while looking at the side of the bed Nero's patting. She then nods at Nero and slowly sits down on the bed while facing towards Nero's closet, which is in front of both of them.

Nero closes his eyes and yawns a little with his head tilted back slightly. After a few seconds go by, he regains his composure and looks at Asuka with curiosity brimming. "So... What's going on?"

Asuka looks at Nero with a sad expression and then turns her attention back towards the closet. "I think me and Shinji are done."

Nero becomes a bit concerned while tilting his head a little towards the right. "What happened?"

Asuka sighs while lowering her head as her eyes become dull. After doing that, she makes herself curl up into a ball with her arms crossed over her knees as her chin rest on her arms. "He admitted how he felt about Mari, and I told him that I'm not going to share him or make him stop having feelings for her because knowing him..."

Nero interrupts her with a light smile on his face. "He would try to stop having those feelings, right?"

As a result of Nero's question, Asuka gives him a sad smile while having turned her head to look at him and nods in agreement. Nero then looks in front of him while sighing with his eyes closed. He then opens them with his head tilted back to look at the ceiling and says calmly, "You made the right decision. Even though it's hurting you a lot."

Asuka looks down at the bed while frowning. She then stretches out her legs on the bed, places her hands on the part of the bed that's to her right for leverage and leans towards Nero. At the same time she does that, Asuka makes a distraught expression and says in her normal volume, "Nero, I don't know what to do! I'm not sure if I should ever forgive him or get him out of my life!"

Nero looks at her while being slightly surprised by her words. He then suddenly smiles and says in his normal volume as well, "That's an easy decision. You forgive him."

Asuka's quite surprised by Nero's words while also being a bit confused. She then pulls her body back a bit while removing her hands from the bed.

After that, sincerity takes over Nero's expression as he leans towards Asuka a little. "Just because he has feelings for Mari, doesn't mean he never loved you. He still cares about you, Asuka. You've been there through some of his toughest times. He'll always appreciate you for being there and for being his friend."

Asuka blushes a little bit while being a bit stunned by what Nero said. She then smiles with content and looks away from him as her hair covers the right side of her face. This allows her to hide the tear of happiness that's going down her face. "You're right, Nero. Thanks for reminding me of that." She then wipes the tear away with her right hand while moving her hair out of her path of vision and looks at Nero with a confident expression. "As long as Shinji's in my life then I'm happy! That's how much he means to me!"

In response to Asuka's declaration, Nero closes his eyes and smiles at her while giving her a sharp nod. Asuka continues to smile at him for a moment and then realizes something. She then suddenly gets quite nervous as she looks towards the left out of the corner of her eyes. After doing that, she says hesitantly without looking at him, "Ummm... Nero?"

Nero opens his eyes to look at Asuka as his smile disappears and says with a bit of curiosity brimming, "What is it, Asuka?"

Asuka turns her attention back to Nero while still being a bit nervous. "I know how you feel about sleeping in a room with a girl who you aren't in a relationship with... But I was wondering..." She then looks away from Nero for a moment again while turning red a little.

After gaining some composure, Asuka looks at Nero with a pleading expression. "Can I stay in here with you for a while?!" She then claps her hands together in front of herself in a begging manner. "I promise to leave right before I fall asleep!" After finishing what she said, Asuka gives Nero a cute look to try to sway him.

Nero's surprised for a moment due to Asuka's sudden request and also because of the look she's giving him. After a few seconds, he chuckles with his eyes closed and head lowered while shaking it in disbelief. Nero then turns around while stretching out his legs and lies on his right side with a faint smile appearing. "I guess it won't hurt that you stay for a little bit longer."

Asuka smiles while being quite happy. She then looks directly at Nero's back and suddenly becomes filled with curiosity as she thinks, "Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?"

Almost immediately after that, Asuka remembers what she had forgotten while gasping a little. She then gets on her knees while placing her hands on her lap and leans a bit towards Nero with curiosity returning. "Hey, Nero...? You never told me about that mark."

Nero turns his head to look at her with a bit of confusion being displayed. "Mark?" He then realizes what she's talking about while looking towards the ceiling out of the corner of his eyes. "Oh..." Nero looks at Asuka. "You mean the one on my back you saw when I was naked." He then smiles in a smart-ass way. "Couldn't get over seeing me naked, could you?"

Asuka gets a little annoyed while her face turns slightly red. She then turns her head to look towards the right a little and mumbles to herself, "In a way, he's right..." Asuka promptly looks at Nero with a bit of fierceness while straightening her posture and points at him with her right hand. "I'm going to ignore your question because you haven't answered mine."

After saying that, Asuka puts her hand back down on her lap while leaning towards Nero again. "And stop trying to change the subject! You did that last time and that's why I forgot all about that mark on your back!" She then smiles at him with determination brimming.

Nero sighs while lowering his head a little with his eyes closed again. He then turns his head away from Asuka with no emotion being displayed as he slowly opens his eyes again. "I got this mark when I lost the girl I loved."

Due to what Nero had just said, Asuka's in shock while gasping a little bit. Nero then grabs onto the sheet of the bed with his left hand while being very upset. "What's even worse is that I caused her death."

Asuka leans towards Nero even more with worry overtaking her being. "How...? I can't believe that you could have done such a thing."

Sadness resonates within Nero's eyes while maintaining his grip on the bed's sheet. "I couldn't protect her like I had promised... Instead, she ended up protecting me and lost her life. So it's my fault she's dead."

Asuka's quickly consumed with sadness as she stares down at the bed with her hands beginning to shake a little. She then looks up at Nero with sincerity gleaming in her eyes and says with a firm tone, "It's not your fault. She gave her life for you."

Having said that, Asuka places both of her hands on the center of her chest and says with a caring tone, "That's real love and I'm confident she doesn't regret doing it." She then turns around while lying down on her left side as there's a small space between their backs. After doing that, Asuka smiles while closing her eyes and states with a caring tone, "Now do her the favor and just be happy. If I were her, that's what I would want for you."

Nero's eyes widen while being overcome with surprise and then quickly turns his head to the left to look at Asuka and thinks, "That's...! That's sort of the same thing Rivka said!" He then lets go of the bed's sheet while lying on his back. After doing that, Nero slowly extends his left hand out towards Asuka and suddenly sees an image of Rivka taking the place of Asuka. This causes him to stop himself while being in shock. Disdain then takes over as Nero quickly turns back around to his right side and whispers to himself, "Idiot! Why the hell did you have to see Rivka in her?!" He quickly shuts his eyes while clearly still being upset.

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

I decided to end the episode right there because I'll be continuing the drama in the next episode. I feel like it will set up the tension of the next episode quite well. I hope you all liked the episode and enjoyed my rip-off from the Rebuild of Evangelion. I'm pretty sure that some of you might be mad at what I did involving Asuka and Shinji. All I can say is sorry and look forward to the next episode.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	14. Episode 14

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

I'll make this short. This episode will be quite impressive and I'm sure that you all will enjoy the action. Before that though, I'll be tying up some loose ends that were left in the last episode. I'm seriously going to have fun with this episode and the next few episodes since I have big plans for them. I hope you all will have fun reading this episode. I don't own Evangelion... It's a sad fact, but at least the people who do own it are great at what they do. Enjoy the episode, everyone.

Episode 14: The Reunion

The scene resumes in Nero's room as it's dark due to it still being night-time. Asuka's still in there with him as it seems that both of them are sleeping while there's a decent gap between their backs. This doesn't last for that much longer though since Nero slowly starts to awaken.

Nero slowly opens his eyes after rustling around a little and looks at the wall that's in front of him with a tired expression. Right after that, he turns his head towards the left and sees that Asuka's still lying down next to him. Nero then turns his body completely to face her and makes a curious expression as he whispers to her, "Asuka...? Asuka... Are you awake?"

The red-head doesn't respond to Nero's words while still facing away from him as she's calmly breathing. Nero then yawns while getting up on his knees and slowly gets on all fours after yawning. After doing that, he crawls towards Asuka and stops right behind her while looking over her. Nero sees that she's sleeping and that causes him to smile out of amusement while whispering, "You promised that you would go back to your room before you fell asleep." He then chuckles with his eyes closed for a brief moment, and after that, looks at Asuka again while being quite content.

Asuka continues to sleep peacefully with a calm demeanor displayed as Nero keeps looking at her for a moment longer. He then looks up at his door with a hint of curiosity brimming, and after a few seconds of looking at the door, he casually looks back at Asuka and slowly slides his hands underneath her body while trying not to wake her. Having obtain a firm grip on Asuka, Nero lifts her up while gradually getting up on the bed.

Nero cautiously carries Asuka out of his room while trying not to wake her up, although he had to improvise quite a bit with sliding his door open by using his right foot since his arms were occupied with holding Asuka. Once he leaves his room, Nero gazes at the door of Shinji/Asuka's room and thinks with a bit of curiosity returning, "Maybe it would be best if they don't sleep in the same bed tonight. After their argument, they may need some more space. Sleeping in the same bed would do the exact opposite of that."

With that thought completed, Nero turns to look at the living room and walks into it. He goes around the couch that faces the television and stops right in front of it. After that, Nero gently lays Asuka on it while she moves her body a little bit to get comfortable as she continues to sleep with her body facing towards the ceiling at first. She then suddenly turns her body to the right and faces Nero with a calm expression on her face.

After witnessing that, Nero smiles and turns towards the direction of his room. He then walks to it, and after several seconds go by, he comes back out with a silk blanket in his hands. Nero knees down in front of the couch that Asuka's on and covers most of her body up with the blanket.

Meanwhile, Mari's sleeping on her couch while facing towards Nero with her head being the closest part of her body to him. Her blanket only covering the lower part of her body, which ironically leaves her tits exposed a bit due to the yellow tank-top she's wearing while the upper part of her tits are sticking out a bit. Mari then slowly starts to wake up while gazing at Nero's back with a tired gaze.

As she's looking at him, Mari becomes a bit confused due to her not being able to tell that it's Nero in front of her. She then notices that he's covering Asuka with a blanket and assumes that it's Shinji while saying with mild concern, "Shinji...?"

Nero's eyes widen from surprise as he turns his head to the left and looks at Mari out of the corner of his eyes. He then clears his throat for a moment while looking down at the floor. After doing that, he responds while looking at Mari out of the corner of his eyes again and perfectly imitating Shinji's voice in a polite manner, "Go back to sleep, Mari."

Mari smiles as she hears Shinji's voice and then nods at Nero. "Okay, Shinji... Goodnight." Having said that, she happily goes back to sleep while resting her head back on her couch's pillow.

Nero closes his eyes as he sighs out of relief with his head slightly lowered. He then turns his attention back to Asuka and smiles while thinking, "That was a close one. If Mari knew it was me instead of Shinji... Things could have easily gotten complicated. People do have the bad habit of jumping into conclusions, after all."

After thinking that, Nero stands up straight while looking down at Asuka and whispers, "Goodnight, Asuka. Sweet dreams... You deserve them." He then turns away from her and walks to his room while shutting the door behind him with his left hand.

The night goes on until its morning as the time is around 9:30 AM, and everyone starts to wake up one by one. Mari is the first to wake up and she immediately goes to the bathroom to take a shower and brush her teeth. Once she finishes, she goes back to her couch, and at the same time she does that, Asuka starts to wake up.

Asuka's facing towards the couch that she's sleeping on as she slowly opens her eyes with a tired expression. She slowly turns her body to face the ceiling and sits up on the couch with her feet on the floor as her hair is quite messy. After doing that, Asuka covers her mouth as she randomly gives out a loud yawn. She then quickly focuses on her hair and starts fixing it a little by passing her fingers through her elegant hair as if they were a brush. Once she finished, Asuka puts her hands down, looks towards her right and sees Mari.

Mari's looking at Asuka with a smart-ass expression while smiling. At the same time, she's pinning her hair into her usual hair style with her hair band and pins after having tied it into her usual twin tails. As she's pinning her hair, Mari's sitting on her couch with her legs crossed and says to Asuka with a sarcastic tone, "Did the 'Great' Asuka have a good night sleep?" She then giggles a little as she finished pinning her hair and places her hands on top of her legs to hold them.

Irritation can be noted on Asuka's expression as she glares at Mari. She then suddenly becomes surprised and quickly looks around while being a bit confused. "Why was I sleeping in the living room in the first place?! I don't remember coming in here at all!" After saying that, Asuka stares at the floor with a serious look on her face while thinking, "The last thing I remember is that I was in Nero's room."

Mari uncrosses her legs while placing each hand on the couch to give herself leverage as she gets up from the couch. After that, she continues to look at Asuka with a smile and says, "I don't know why you were sleeping there last night, but I saw Shinji right there."

As she said that last part, Mari had point at the area that Nero had knelt down with her left hand while looking at the area. She then puts that hand on her hip and looks at Asuka again. "It looked like he had just put a blanket over you. That way you wouldn't be cold. Pretty thoughtful of him, don't you think?" Having said that last part caused Mari to laugh a little.

Asuka quickly snaps her head up to look at Mari with an expression of disbelief while leaning forward a bit. "Really?! Are you sure it was Shinji?!"

Mari nods her head while smiling. "Yeah. When I woke up, he told me to go back to sleep. I immediately recognized his voice. Shinji and Nero DO look very much alike, but they still have the difference in how their voice sounds."

Asuka's stunned by what Mari just said while thinking, "I can't believe after everything I said, Shinji would do something like that." After thinking that, Asuka pauses for a moment while looking in front of herself, which is where the television is located. She then thinks to herself with some concern brimming, "But I still don't know how I ended up on the couch though!"

Suddenly, Shinji walks out of his room and sees Asuka. This causes him to be very worried due to his and Asuka's conversation not being finished as he slowly walks to her. He then stops next to her left side while lowering his head to look at the floor with a sad expression. In response, Asuka looks at Shinji with curiosity briefly showing. Sadness then quickly takes over as Asuka say gently, "Shinji..."

Shinji hesitantly looks at Asuka while still having his head lowered with nervousness being noted on his person. "Ummm... About last night..."

Asuka gives him a sincere smile as her eyes glisten. "Shinji, I still love you."

In response to Asuka's sudden words, Shinji pulls his head up to look directly at her while being in shock. Asuka continues to smile lightly, but with some sadness in her eyes as she turns her gaze away from him. "But I'm sticking to what I said last night. We won't be together because you have feelings for Mari. I could never accept being with you again."

After hearing what Asuka said, Mari's jaw drops a little while being a bit stunned. At the same time, Shinji's sadness rapidly returns and lowers his head again. Asuka then looks at Shinji while holding back tears with a sincere look on her face. "But this doesn't mean you never loved me! I know that we care about each other!"

Determination appears on Asuka's person as she lifts up her right arm a bit while having it on her right side. "We'll still be friends, Stupid Shinji!" She then extends that same hand towards Shinji to point at him and says with a commanding tone, "So you better have my back when I need you to!"

Shinji snaps his head up to look at Asuka once again while being completely shocked at what she said. He then thinks to himself, "Asuka... You're actually..."

Before completing his thought, Asuka smiles at Shinji while putting her right arm down and tilts her head slightly towards the left. In the meantime, Shinji continues to be a bit shocked for a moment. He then gradually smiles with his eyes closed as he's feeling immense joy dwell within him. "You can count on me, Asuka."

In the meantime, Nero's been watching them through a gap he made by sliding his door open enough to see through. He's also been listening in on the conversation since the moment Mari told Asuka about Shinji "Covering her up" with the blanket. He currently has a calm expression as he closes his eyes while lowering his head a little. He then whispers to himself, "It's good that they're still friends. I don't even mind that Asuka thinks that it was Shinji who covered her up."

Nero slowly opens his eyes while spacing out with a light smile on his face. "This is for the best."

Pen-Pen suddenly waddles up behind Nero while looking at him with a tired expression and lets out a random, loud squawk. This startles Nero as he immediately shuts his door with his left hand while turning his head to the right to look at the warm-water penguin. He then sighs to himself with his eyes closed to regain his composure and looks at Pen-Pen with a mild smile. "You really shouldn't sneak up on people like that Pen-Pen."

In response, Pen-Pen lets out a gentle squawk while having his left fin on his stomach. This is to signal to Nero that he's hungry, which Nero takes notice of Pen-Pen's plea while nodding at him with an amused smile. "Alright. I'll get you some fish." He then gently pets the warm-water penguin's head with his right hand.

After doing that, Nero stands up while turning to face the door. He then turns his head to the left to look at Pen-Pen and asked with a jokingly, composed tone, "Cooked or Raw, my feathery friend?"

Pen-Pen gives out a loud squawk with his eyes closed as his fins are extended back in a gesture while seeming to be pleased by the options. Nero takes Pen-Pen's reaction as his answer and says with a smirk while turning to face the door, "Both it is, then." With that said, Nero opens his door to exit while Pen-Pen joyfully jumps up and down while clapping his fins together.

The scene ends and the day continues on until reaching early in the evening. It's around 5 PM, and the new focus is on Gendo and Fuyutsuki. They're having a conversation on the progress of the children. Soon enough, the focal point of their conversation becomes about Nero since Fuyutsuki is still left in the dark about Nero's past.

Fuyutsuki slams his hands on the other side of Gendo's desk while giving him an upset glare. "I'm sick and tired of this, Ikari! You and I agreed that I will be loyal to you as long as you were honest with me about everything! It's one thing to tell the others to trust your judgment, but when you decide not to tell me anything about the 7th Child, then you can't expect me not to do some extensive research! Research, which involved me coming into contact with people who have had a VERY close relationship with SEELE in the past!"

Gendo calmly looks at Fuyutsuki while leaning up against his chair with his right hand placed on his desk. At the same time, he's repeatedly tapping his index finger on the desk with seriousness being displayed as his left arm dangles next to his body. "And what exactly did you find out?"

After hearing Gendo's question, Fuyutsuki becomes serious while clenching his hands into fists as they're still on the desk. "To start, Nero and Keel have quite a bit of history. There was no specific information about their involvement with each other except that Keel met Nero when he was very young. Also, they had been seen together in North America, Europe and Asia on different occasions." He then straightens his posture and places his hands behind his back. "This makes me worry about how much we can trust Nero."

Gendo suddenly stops tapping his finger and then stands up while intently looking at Fuyutsuki. After that, he clears his throat for a brief moment and says with a calm tone, "I already knew about Nero's involvement with Keel. But I'm confident that they are no longer working together."

Fuyutsuki makes a confused expression while slightly pulling his head back. "Why is that?"

Seriousness returns to Gendo's face while responding. "Do you remember the incident that wiped out both the 2nd Branch and the state of Nevada, which was the state that the 2nd Branch was located. Not to mention, all the inhabitants that were there at the time as well?"

Fuyutsuki nods while being quite serious. "Yes. It was a Sea of Dirac that wiped it out. It had occurred right when the original Unit 04 was going through its first operational test."

Gendo looks away from Fuyutsuki by turning his head towards the left. "That there is a lie."

Fuyutsuki's eyes widen while being a bit surprised. "What?"

After hearing Fuyutsuki's concern, Gendo calmly states, "Unit 04 was already operational. It was the main cause of the disappearance of the 2nd Branch due to its experimental S2 Engine." He then looks at Fuyutsuki out of the corner of his eyes. "Do you want to guess who the pilot of the original Unit 04 was?"

Fuyutsuki makes a slightly confused expression at first. He then realizes who Gendo's talking about while being very surprised and says in a loud volume, "You don't mean...!"

Gendo gives out a short nod. "Yes. Nero was the pilot of that Eva."

Fuyutsuki leans towards Gendo by placing his hands on Gendo's desk again while being in disbelief. "But if he was in the Eva when that happened, how could he have possibly survived?!"

Gendo turns his head to look directly at Fuyutsuki again. "Nero isn't like the other children. He's actually the smartest person in the world. He's even both the First and the Last Child."

Fuyutsuki's completely confused by what Gendo just said. He then straightens his posture with concern brimming. "Explain that to me. Isn't Rei the 1st Child? And how could Nero be both?"

Gendo retorts with a firm tone. "Nero had actually been recognized as the 1st Child by Keel during the time I had no idea of their involvement with each other. It was finally brought to my attention by Keel when he revealed to me about Nero being in his control that he would be the Final Child, which in this case is the 7th Child. Even though we have had many possible candidates at our disposal to be considered as pilots, in technical terms, Nero's both first and last. This means that it began with Nero and it will end with Nero."

Fuyutsuki becomes even more confused as he thinks to himself, "What could that possibly mean?!" He then makes an expression of realization, which is quickly followed by a serious expression towards Gendo, and says, "But you still haven't told me the reason you think Nero and Keel would no longer be working together."

Gendo turns away from Fuyutsuki again so that he doesn't see the sad look on Gendo's face as he says with a somber tone, "There was a girl by the name of Rivka Genster. She was the test pilot for the first version of Unit 05. The same one that Makinami is currently using. At the time, she was considered as the 6th Child, although Keel never had accepted her to be the 6th Child. She was an expendable tool from his view-point."

Fuyutsuki's a bit confused as he watches Gendo. "I don't understand. What does she have to do with all of this?"

Gendo responds while maintaining a somber tone. "Due to Keel not caring that Rivka would live or die, he gave Nero the order to destroy the 2nd Branch and kill everyone in it."

As a result of what Gendo just heard, Fuyutsuki's in shock while being to say anything in response. Gendo then turns his head slightly to the left to look at Fuyutsuki out of the corner of his eyes with a firm look. "At first, Nero had agreed to do just that, but he ended up betraying SEELE in the end."

Fuyutsuki tilts his head a bit to the right with seriousness being noted. "Why did he betray them?"

Gendo looks at the floor with a cold stare. "He fell in love with Rivka."

Fuyutsuki blinks in a surprised manner while fixing his head's posture. "He fell in love with her?"

Gendo gives out a short nod and then looks away from Fuyutsuki while giving out a big sigh. "Unfortunately, She had died the same day Nevada was annihilated. With her death and his betrayal, I doubt Nero would want to still be involved with SEELE. I don't believe Keel would even want to risk trusting Nero again as well."

Some concern can be seen on Fuyutsuki's face as he says, "Is that why you trust him? Because you think that he blames SEELE for the lost of Rivka, and that he may want revenge."

Gendo simply says, "It would make sense since he decided to call me back about the offer I had given him several months ago." He then thinks to himself with his eyes closed, "And, I trust him because I have no reason to doubt him." Gendo slowly opens his eyes while looking up at the ceiling and continues to think. "I just hope that he has forgiven me for what I've done to him."

Suddenly, Gendo's thoughts are interrupted with the sounding of the city's alarm. The entire facility of NERV quickly gets to work on where the enemy is located while waiting for Misato and the others to arrive. Soon enough, Misato enters Central Dogma while being accompanied by Kaji and Touji.

Misato stands at her usual spot while having a firm expression. She's watching the main screen while saying with a commanding tone, "Status report!"

Hyuga turns his head to the right and gives Misato a composed look while saying, "We've confirmed three Evas!"

Misato gets a bit annoyed while thinking to herself with her right hand tightly clenching her left arm, "Why can't they just give us more of a break?!" She then turns her attention to Maya and Ritsuko, who are at Maya's post, while being quite serious. "How are the Evas?!"

Maya looks at Misato with sadness resonating within her eyes. "Unit 00 still has some damage from the last fight. It was the Eva with the most damage, after all."

Misato crosses her arms while thinking, "Rei will have to be careful. It's a good thing there's only three Evas that we have to deal with." Misato then turns her attention back towards the main screen while thinking, "I'll keep her and Kensuke together to back each other up."

Ritsuko interrupts Misato's train of thought with a hint of concern. "How will you be dividing them up? We don't have any information on which enemy will give us the most trouble."

Misato suddenly gives off a depressed demeanor while staring at the main screen and thinks, "I would normally have Asuka and Shinji pair up, but since their relationship is over, they might not be at their best emotionally."

Meanwhile, Aoba's looking at his screen with a focused expression and yells out, "The pilots are ready!"

Misato glances at Aoba for a moment and then redirects her attention back to the main screen. After doing that, she says with a commanding tone, "Where are the coordinates of the enemy Evas?!"

Maya responds to Misato's question while looking at her screen with worry brimming. "It seems like two of them are located at the south outskirts of the city. The third one is due north while being at the city's boundaries. This is very unusual."

Confusion can be noted on Misato's expression as she's looking at Maya. "How is it unusual?"

Kaji answers Misato's question while standing to her right with his eyes focused on her. "Probably because instead of all three of them being in the same area together, or each one being separated, two of them are together and the third one is all by itself."

Misato gives Kaji a concerned look. "That is something to find odd, but I think it just adds to our advantage. It's better that the three of them aren't together."

With that statement from Misato, Gendo appears while sitting down at his counter-like desk with Fuyutsuki standing on his right. Gendo has a serious expression while looking intently at Misato. He then gets into his usual pose and says with a stern tone, "Don't underestimate the enemy, Colonel. We never know what they could have up their sleeve."

After hearing Gendo's words, Misato turns her head to the left to look at Gendo sitting behind her with a bit of surprise showing. She then makes a determined expression as she nods at him. "You're right, sir!"

Having said that, Misato turns her attention back to the main screen and yells out with a commanding tone, "Get ready to launch the Evas! We aren't going to underestimate these bastards, so launch Units 01, 02 and 05 towards the two enemy Evas that are together! Afterwards, send the other Evas towards the third!"

Ritsuko turns her attention from Maya's screen towards Misato with some confusion showing due to her command. "But why would you send more Evas towards the one enemy Eva?"

Misato looks at Ritsuko with a confident smirk. "Because of Unit 00's damage, it would be best to send our three best pilots to fight against the two that are in the southern area. Meanwhile, the other four will gang up on the one that purposely arrived by itself." She then turns her attention at the main screen with a serious look. "I got a gut-feeling that Eva is by itself for a reason. It must be the strongest among the three."

Touji stands to Misato's left while looking at her with a confused expression. "Ya said that the 'Three' best pilots will face the two in the south. But Nero is the second best 'cause of his sync, so why isn't he in Shinji's group?"

Misato smiles while still looking at the main screen. "Because that way, he can keep his promise to you about not letting Hikari get hurt." She then glances at Touji and winks with her right eye.

Touji's a little surprised by what Misato said and then smiles while nodding at her. "Ya got that right! Thanks, Misato!"

Misato happily nods at him. "No problem." After saying that, she turns her attention back to the main screen once again and yells out with a commanding tone, "Launch the Evas!"

The Evas are then launched to their designated area to face the enemy Evas. The scene focuses on the enemy Eva that's by itself as Units 00, 03, 04 and the Extra Eva are facing towards it. Dummy Eva 14 is mostly navy blue with some black on the legs while the navy blue is a darker shade of blue than Unit 00's. It has some silver on its chest where there happens to be a crescent moon gem on it, two positron cannons for arms, which are also silver, and both have three long prongs wrapping around the main barrel that's a bit thinner than the prongs. The Eva walks on two legs while having a black visor covering its eyes as the top of the head has a long blade extending from the center.

Kensuke watches the enemy Eva's positron cannons with a worried look on his face. "That looks scary."

Rei says with a reassuring tone while staring at the enemy, "Don't be threatened by it, Kensuke. Weapons like those tend to take up a large amount of energy to be used. If we can dodge the first attack, we can take advantage."

After hearing what Rei said, Hikari appears on Kensuke's left side screen with a light smile on her face. "She's right. Together, we can take it down." Kensuke then looks at Hikari while smiling and nods with a pretty confident expression.

In the meantime, Nero randomly cracks his right hand's fingers while having it next to his Eva's right control. After doing that, he grabs onto the control with a serious demeanor being displayed and stares intently at the enemy. Dummy Eva 14 then suddenly stands in a sideways position while slowly lifting up its left arm and points the positron cannon at Unit 03.

Having seen this, Misato's overcome with concern while quickly uncrossing her arms. At the same time, she takes a step forward with her right foot and yells out in a commanding tone, "Nero, it's aiming at you! Get away!"

Nero maintains his serious demeanor while narrowing his eyes without shifting his focus away from the enemy. He then leans forward while extensively examining Dummy Eva 14. After several seconds going by, Nero suddenly smiles, casually rests his back against the entry plug's seat and says in English with a hint of content, "I recognize that pose. It's been a long time, Lucas."

Misato quickly pulls her body back a bit, confused due to Nero suddenly speaking in English and thinks to herself, "Did he just talk in English?!"

Lucas' voice suddenly comes from Dummy Eva 14 while making his Eva put its left arm down. His voice is heard over the intercom while he's laughing from amusement and responds back in English. "It looks like you haven't forgotten me, Nero! I'm honored!" He then continues to laugh. *Side Note: This is a reminder that Lucas is half American/half Canadian and doesn't know much Japanese. So he'll only talk in English for his own benefit. Also, whenever Nero talks to Lucas, he'll be talking in English*

Misato's shocked to hear someone's voice come from the enemy Eva and yells out, "What the...?! There's someone actually piloting it?!"

Rei's quite shocked as well while looking towards Unit 03 from its left with her back against the seat. She then says with concern taking over, "Nero... Do you know that person?"

Nero keeps smiling with determination being displayed. "Yeah. His name is Lucas Valley. He s a pilot that SEELE has had in reserved for a long time. He has a bit of a grudge against me." He then lets out a mild chuckle.

Ritsuko's amazed by what she just heard while looking towards the main screen and mutters to herself, "That means they know each other personally! But if that's the case, then Nero is connected to SEELE!"

Lucas' sitting on the entry plug's seat with his arms crossed while confidently smiling. He's wearing a navy blue plugsuit that matches Dummy Eva 14 Eva while the plugsuit resembles the one Nero wears and has a crescent moon-shaped gem on the chest just like his Eva. Lucas then says in response to what Nero had told Rei not too long ago, "Bingo! Now we're going to settle things once and for all, Nero!"

Nero gives off a slightly skeptical look while tilting his head slightly to the right. "This isn't fencing, Lucas. The stakes are much higher in this case." He then straightens his head's posture and changes his expression to show coldness in his eyes while devoid of any emotion. "If you can't even beat me in fencing, what makes you think that you can beat me in an Eva battle?"

Lucas uncrosses his arms and grabs onto the controls while maintaining his confidence. "That was the past. I've changed a lot since then."

Nero smiles with amusement as he's leaning a bit forward. "Is that so... Retard?"

Lucas' surprised by what Nero said while pulling his head back with his eyes widened. After that, he grinds his teeth a little while being filled with anger. He then yells out with his eyes closed while his head's lowered, "Don't call me that!"

Nero chuckles while slowly shaking his head with amusement showing. "You still haven't changed." After saying, Nero tilts his head slightly to the left while smirking.

Lucas makes an irritated expression as a result of Nero's comment while looking away from Unit 03. "You know I hate being called that... I didn't think you would ever call me that. You never did it before."

Nero continues to smile with sincerity brimming. "Sorry. I promise, I won't call you that again."

Lucas takes a deep breath while closing his eyes. After doing that, he opens his eyes while facing towards Unit 03 with a determined smile taking over. "Well to make it up to me... Let's get started already because me and this Eva can't wait to blast you to smithereens." Lucas then chuckles lightly.

Nero nods while smiling with equal determination showing. "We'll see about that." He then slowly loses his smile with a calm expression appearing. Afterwards, Nero turns his head to the left to look towards his fellow pilots' Evas. "Hey, guys. I'm going to fight him by myself, okay?"

Misato's immediately baffled by Nero's request and yells out, "What?! That's not part of the plan! All four of you are supposed to work together!"

Nero's voice suddenly comes through the intercom in response. "I know, Misato. But I have quite a bit of history with the guy who's piloting that Eva. I'm confident that I can beat him. Just worry about Shinji, Asuka and Mari. They are facing the other two enemy Evas, after all."

Misato has a worried expression at first due to what Nero had said. She then becomes quite serious and looks towards Maya. "How are Units 01, 02 and 05?"

Maya types while focused on her screen with a serious gaze. "They're doing pretty good." She then looks up at the main screen. "Displaying it right now."

The main screen promptly shows Unit 01 as it's fighting against an enemy Eva while being about three miles away from Units 02 and 05, who are fighting against the other enemy Eva. Both Dummy Eva 15 and 16 look exactly alike while being the color turquoise. They look almost exactly like the Mass Production Evas, but their mouths are completely covered up with a large metal plate. The only way to differentiate the two of them is that Dummy Eva 15 has wings and Dummy Eva 16 doesn't. They both carry the same large weapon that the Mass Production Evas carried, but this time they aren't the fake duplicates of the Lance of Longinus in disguise. They're just large, bladed weapons while being the color black.

Misato looks at the main screen with concern resonating within her eyes. The screen shows that Mari and Asuka are actually working together to fight an enemy Eva. At the same time, Shinji's busy fighting the other one. Seeing this causes Misato to be surprised as she yells out, "They're actually working together?!"

Touji says to himself with an expression of disbelief, "It's the end of the world. There's no way they coulda' agreed to that."

Shinji's voice comes through the intercom while his Eva maneuvers around Dummy Eva 15 and says with a content tone, "They actually did agree. They said it would be for the best that they got use to each other." He then chuckles.

Amazement quickly overtakes Misato's face as she thinks to herself, "I never thought they would agree to work together." She then smiles while joyfully thinking with her right hand clenched up next to her face, "This is great! Now there won't be any more issues among the children!"

Asuka pulls her Eva away from Dummy Eva 16 and stops it at a bit of a distance away. She then appears on Central Dogma's main screen with concern brimming. "Misato! I overheard what was going on with Nero and the Eva that has a pilot. Are you sure it's fine to let Nero fight that Eva by himself?!"

Misato gives Asuka a sad look with her right arm entwined with her left. "He wants to fight the pilot of that Eva alone. It seems like they have a score to settle. I guess, I'll let him handle it." She then smiles lightly at Asuka. "But don't worry, Asuka. If things get bad, I'll have the others assist him."

In response, Asuka smiles and nods at her. Her image then disappears from the main screen as Misato has a curious expression and thinks to herself, "It's weird that Asuka's so worried about Nero considering what just happened with Shinji. I thought she would be more focus on that." Misato then closes her eyes while taking a deep breath with her head lowered.

Meanwhile, Shinji makes Unit 01 get away from Dummy Eva 15. After doing that, Unit 01 pulls out its Prog Knife with its right hand. Shinji then looks towards the left and sees the side screen that displays where Unit 02 is located. His image then appears on Asuka's right side screen with a bit of concern. "Are you alright, Asuka?"

Asuka suddenly opens her eyes while being a bit surprised by both Shinji's appearance and the question he asked her. She then looks up at him and smiles while confidently saying, "I'm fine, Shinji! You don't need to worry about me! Don't forget who I am!" After saying that, Asuka laughs a little bit.

Shinji nods at Asuka with a delighted smile. "I know, but I'm still worry about you. When I woke up this morning, you weren't lying down next to me. You usually wake me up when you get up."

Asuka shows a small amount of confusion on her face while slightly slanting her head to the right. "But Shinji... You knew I was sleeping in the living room."

Confusion quickly takes over Shinji's expression as he lost his smile. He then responds while momentarily shaking his head. "No, I didn't. I didn't even know you slept there. When I saw you this morning, I thought you got up early and went to the living room to talk to Mari."

Asuka raises her voice as she tries to convince Shinji while leaning towards the screen. "But Mari said you covered me up with a blanket last night! She even heard your voice when you told her to go to sleep!"

Shinji replies with a pleading tone. "Believe me, Asuka! I don't remember doing that! I'm sure I didn't wake up at all last night! There's no way I could have done it!"

Asuka's stunned by what Shinji said as she thinks to herself, "If it wasn't Shinji then who..." Her eyes then widen while realizing something and thinks to herself, "Of course...! It had to be Nero!" She's then overcome with curiosity while looking downward as her body's facing towards the entry plug's main screen and thinks, "But how could Mari get their voices confused? She said that it was Shinji's voice she heard."

Mari suddenly yells out with a moderately panicked tone through the intercom, "Asuka, heads up!"

Asuka gets startled a little and then turns her attention in front of her while looking upward. After doing that, she sees Dummy Eva 16 in the air and this causes her to make a shocked expression while flinching and yells out, "Mein Gott!"

As it soars toward Unit 02, Dummy Eva 16 pulls its weapon back over its head and swings it downward at Unit 02. Unit 05 then gets in front of Unit 02 and deploys its A.T. Field to block the enemy's attack, which the collision causes a loud sound to be made. As a result of its attack being blocked, Dummy Eva 16 lands its feet on the ground while still keeping its weapon connected to Unit 05's A.T. Field.

Mari's smiling while looking up at the enemy Eva as it can be noted that she's no longer wearing the neural helmet due to her not finding the importance of using it that she was once told in the past. She then yells out as she leans forward a little while her eyes gleaming with determination, "Pay attention, Asuka! We need to beat these assholes before you can get down to the mystery of who covered you up!" Having said that, Mari giggles a little since she thought what she said was funny.

Asuka makes a slightly annoyed expression while glaring at Unit 05 from behind and then rolls her eyes for a brief moment. Afterwards, Asuka looks at Unit 05 again with seriousness showing and thinks, "Although, I'm pretty sure that it was Nero. I'll ask him later to be sure." She then smiles with confidence brimming and looks towards the right as she yells out, "Here I go!" Asuka tightens her grip on her controls and makes Unit 02 dash towards the right. After a few seconds of running in that direction, she quickly makes it dash towards the enemy Eva while building up momentum.

As soon as Unit 02 gets close enough, it jumps up into the air while doing multiple, curled-up front flips. Unit 02 then stops to thrusts its right foot down onto the enemy while aiming for its head. In response, Dummy Eva 16 looks up at Unit 02 while it deploys its A.T. Field. It successfully blocks Unit 02's foot, which this also causes a loud sound to be made.

At the same time, the momentum makes Dummy Eva 16's feet become submerged under the ground quite a bit. Unit 05 then swings its right javelin and hits the enemy Eva's weapon to deflect it towards the right side. After doing that, Unit 05 jabs its left javelin towards the enemy while having pulled its right javelin back as Mari passionately yells.

Unfortunately, Dummy Eva 16's A.T. Field shields it from the attack and then looks at Unit 05 as it starts to swing its weapon in a sideways angle towards it. Having seen that, Asuka grits her teeth for a moment while getting annoyed and yells out, "Oh no you don't!" She then has Unit 02 thrust both of its hands onto the enemy's A.T. Field while still being on top of it. This causes a small shock-wave while making another loud sound.

Dummy Eva 16 gets distracted by what Unit 02 did and looks up towards it while still doing the swinging motion that it had already started. Mari then pulls Unit 05 back to dodge the attack. Unit 05 then rushes towards the enemy while pulling both javelins back. After pulling the javelins back, Unit 05 thrusts them towards the same spot it had collided with the first time and shatters the enemy's A.T. Field. This causes Mari to yell out of joy, "I did it!" She then makes her Eva follow-through and stabs the enemy's stomach with both javelins.

Right after that, Dummy Eva 16 moans out in pain as its A.T. Field starts to dissipate. Asuka then smiles as Unit 02 starts to descend due to the enemy's A.T. Field dissipating while leaning towards the enemy with its right arm pulled back. After doing that, Unit 02 throws a powerful punch and hits the enemy right on the face. As a result, Dummy Eva 16 starts to fall backwards due to the momentum of the punch while letting go of its weapon.

Then, without hesitation, Unit 02 swiftly grabs onto the enemy's neck with its right hand. After that, Asuka makes Unit 02 pull the head towards it while getting ready to punch it with its left fist. Right before doing that, Asuka says with a determined expression, "You should have never messed with me, H ndin! (Bitch)"

Unit 02 releases its grip on the enemy's neck while thrusting it right fist towards the enemy Eva. It then punches Dummy Eva 16 in the face with as much force as possible. Due to the force of the punch being very powerful, Dummy Eva 16's face was completely smashed in as the enemy Eva's body crashes into the ground, which causes a pretty big crater to be made while multiple debris is flung into the air.

Mari gives out a long whistle while being impressed at what Asuka did as it's quite obvious that Dummy Eva 16 has been defeated. She then smiles while looking at Unit 02 from behind it. "Way to go, Asuka. That was pretty intense."

Asuka has her Eva crouching over the enemy while still having its left fist placed on the enemy Eva's smashed up head. She then responds to Mari's praise with a cheerful smile while turning her head to the left to look at Unit 05. "Thanks for the compliment, Mari."

Mari continues to smile and then makes an expression of realization. Afterwards, she says with curiosity in her voice while leaning forward a little, "Hey... Did you notice that the enemy's mouth was plated shut?"

Asuka makes a confused expression while still looking towards Unit 05. She then slowly turns her attention back to the defeated enemy and thinks to herself, "Now that she mentions it, its mouth did have that metal plate over it." After saying that, Asuka tilts her head slightly towards the left and mutters, "But why was its mouth covered up...?"

Suddenly, a high pitch sound is heard. This causes Asuka to cover her ears with both hands while cringing in pain with her eyes closed. She then yells out while bent forward, "What the hell is that?!"

Mari's leaning back against her seat while also covering her ears as she's in pain as well. "I don't know! It came out of nowhere!"

At the same time, everyone in Central Dogma is also covering their ears while the high pitch sound continues to go on. Misato then yells out with her ears covered as she's bent forward due to the pain she's feeling, "What's going on?! Where is that noise coming from?!"

Hyuga fights through the pain as he's searching for the source. He then makes a shocked expression and turns his chair to the left to look at Misato. "It's coming from the enemy Eva that Shinji is fighting!"

Misato snaps her head to look at Hyuga while being very surprised. "What?!"

In the meantime, Shinji cringes while leaning towards his left side with his eyes closed and then yells out with an exasperated tone, "Misato! What do I do?!"

After saying that, Shinji slowly opens his left eye to look at the enemy. "It took off that plate that was on its mouth after I was able to make it lose its weapon and then that strange sound suddenly came out!" He then shuts his left eye again and pulls his head back onto the seat while being in a lot of pain. "It hurts so much!"

Misato's now standing up straight while her hands are still on her ears with worry resonating within her eyes. "Shinji!" She then looks at Ritsuko with irritation being noted on her face. "What's up with that noise?!"

Ritsuko looks back at Misato with a serious gaze while her hands are on her ears as well. "The enemy Eva is using a high pitch frequency! If this keeps up, there could be permanent damage to the pilot's eardrum, and to even ours!"

Kaji places his left hand on Misato's right shoulder and makes her face him with a bit of pain showing on his face. "Tell Shinji to attack! He can't let this go on!"

Misato's a bit unsure while briefly looking at Kaji. Determination then overtakes her expression as she puts her hands down and turns her attention towards the main screen. Right after doing that, she yells out in a commanding tone, "Shut that thing up, Shinji! We can't take much more of this!"

Shinji opens his left eye again to look at the enemy and nods. "Alright!" With that said, Shinji slowly reaches for the controls with both hands while still feeling a lot of pain. He then gets a hold of the controls and yells as Unit 01 runs towards the enemy.

When Unit 01 gets close enough, it tries to strike the enemy Eva with its Prog Knife. As Unit 01's about to reach it, Dummy Eva 15 keeps letting out that painful sound from its mouth while revealing that it has razor-like teeth that was being covered by the metal plate. After doing that, it flies away to a safe distance and continues to let out that excruciating noise while in mid-air as it's facing towards Unit 01. Shinji then stops his Eva while looking towards the enemy with an agitated expression. "Darn it! I almost had it!"

Dummy Eva 15 keeps flapping its wings while being in mid-air as it stops producing that noise for a moment. It then suddenly lets out the high-pitch noise again, but this time it seems to be even louder than before. As a result, a shock-wave heads directly towards Unit 01 with incredible speed and then collides with it while making a loud, thunder-like sound.

The power of the sound-wave is so strong that Unit 01 is sent flying backwards into the air while letting go of its Prog Knife. When Unit 01's back crashes onto the ground, Shinji screams out in pain due to the impact of the crash and his synchronization.

Misato's consumed with worry while yelling out, "Shinji!" She then closes her eyes while putting her hands over her ears again because of the high-pitch sound being louder. After that, Misato yells out with an irritated tone while tilting her head back a little bit, "Damn it! I can't take that annoying sound anymore!"

Ritsuko looks at Misato with her hands still over her ears while trying to maintain her composure. "Colonel Katsuragi! You need to send Units 02 and 05 to assist Unit 01! Shinji can't defeat the enemy by himself as long as it stays at a far distance from him and continues to hit him with that shock-wave!"

Misato glares at Ritsuko with irritation being noted on her expression. "I know that!" She then turns her attention back to the main screen, puts her hands down and says with a commanding tone, "Asuka, Mari!"

Both Asuka and Mari immediately appear on the main screen with their hands covering their ears while being quite agitated by the noise that Dummy Eva 15 continues to make. After seeing the two of them appear on the screen, Misato says, "You two need to go give Shinji a hand! He's having a hard time against the enemy!"

Asuka and Mari both nod in agreement with a hint of determination taking over. After doing that, their image disappears from the main screen, which allows everyone in Central Dogma to see Shinji's current situation. Misato then says to Shinji with a calm tone, "Shinji. Asuka and Mari will be there soon to help you. Just hold on."

Shinji makes his Eva stand up while he's still being bothered by the enemy's high pitch sound. As he does that, his eyes are locked on Dummy Eva 15 while being very exhausted. "So, all I have to do is wait for Asuka and Mari. Together, we can definitely beat that Eva."

With the completion of that statement, Shinji's eyes widen as he suddenly remembers what Nero said about him being weak. He's then overcome with sorrow as he looks downward and says softly to himself, "What am I doing? Am I that weak that I can't beat the enemy by myself anymore?"

Shinji closes his eyes while getting upset as he's tightly clenching his hands with them close to his chest. "What would happen if everyone was relying on me to defeat an enemy and there was no one to back me up?! Would I just let them all down because of how weak I am?!" He then looks up at the enemy with an intense glare while firmly grasping onto the controls and shouts out, "I'm not going to be weak anymore!"

Due to Shinji's outburst, everyone in Central Dogma are all surprised as Touji watches the main screen with a stunned expression while thinking, "Was that really Shinji sayin' that?! He sounded pissed!"

Shinji suddenly makes Unit 01 dash towards the enemy Eva with incredible speed while passionately yelling. Dummy Eva 15 then stops letting out the high pitch sound and swiftly flies up higher. Shinji quickly reacts by making Unit 01 jump up to the sky and goes right above the enemy Eva. Dummy Eva 15 then looks up at Unit 01 while being covered by its shadow. Right after doing that, it opens its mouth and lets out the high pitch sound again, which causes a shock-wave to head towards Unit 01.

In response to the enemy's attack, Unit 01's A.T. Field appears and blocks the shock-wave. It then descends onto the enemy and the momentum causes both of them to crash down onto the ground pretty quickly. Dummy Eva 15's now lying on its back while it had stop making the noise from its mouth as it's looking directly at Unit 01. Suddenly, Unit 01 opens up its mouth while its eyes light up as it's crouching on top of the enemy. It then stands up straight while tilting its head back to look towards the sky and letting out a loud roar.

Maya gasps while being horrified by what she's seeing on her screen and then tries to regain her composure while yelling out, "Unit 01 has gone Berserk! Shinji's synchronization is rising and it's already well over 100%! At the rate it's going, it will be reaching 200% in a matter of seconds!"

Kaji looks towards Maya with a hint of worry as he thinks to himself, "Let's just pray that he doesn't reach 400%. We don't want a repeat of what happened during the battle against the 14th Angel."

Dummy Eva 15 continues to watch at Unit 01 and then lets out the high-pitch sound again while this one is the loudest yet. The pure strength of the shock-wave that's created hits Unit 01 right in the sends it flying backwards like last time. But this time, it does an arching back-flip and lands on its feet at a small distance away from the enemy. Unit 01 then leans forward and intensely stares Dummy Eva 15 down.

Meanwhile, Dummy Eva 15 gets up and stands on all fours while looking directly at Unit 01. It then lets out a huge screech, which produces the high pitch sound as well, and a giant shock-wave rapidly expands out from all around it at an amazing speed. Unit 01 gets hit with a part of the shock-wave, but it's able to hold its ground. It then dashes towards the enemy while making multiple grunting sounds.

Dummy Eva 15 promptly stops screeching and then expands its wings. After that, the enemy launches itself towards Unit 01 while flying and expanding its A.T. Field. Shinji ignores the fact that the enemy deployed its A.T. Field by running Unit 01's head into it. They are now at a stand-off while Unit 01 places both hands on the enemy's A.T. Field and grabs onto it.

Misato takes a step forward with a worried expression as she yells out, "Shinji!" She then pauses for a moment while waiting to hear some sort of response, but she doesn't receive any as Unit 01 and the enemy remain in a stand-off. After witnessing that, Misato yells out again while still being worried, "Can you hear me, Shinji?!"

Once again she doesn't receive a reply from Shinji and that makes Misato turn her attention to Maya with a serious look on her face. "What's the status on him?!"

Maya looks at Misato out of the corner of her eyes with concern being displayed "His synchronization has reached 200% and it's still increasing. I'm having a hard time determining if Shinji's conscious in there or not."

Misato gets even more worried as she thinks to herself, "If this keeps up, he'll be at 400% and then the same thing will happen again! He'll lose his physical form, and this time, he might not be able to come back!"

With the completion of that thought, Misato turns her attention back to the main screen and yells out with a pleading tone, "Shinji, please...!" She closes her eyes while dropping her head down for a moment. Misato then looks up while tears start to form. "Defeat the enemy and come back to us!"

Shinji's voice suddenly comes through the intercom and says with a confident tone, "Don't worry, Misato!"

Misato's quickly overcome with surprise while taking a step back. "Shinji?!"

Shinji's looking at the enemy Eva with a determined expression. "I'm not going anywhere! I'm not going to run away! I'm going to protect everyone!" Unit 01 pulls on the enemy's A.T. Field and tears it apart. Everyone in Central Dogma are all amazed at what they just saw as Shinji makes Unit 01 kick the enemy with its right foot in the stomach with a lot of force. This causes the enemy to stumble backwards. As it does that, Unit 01 rushes to the enemy and has its face extremely close to the enemy s face.

Dummy Eva 15 slowly opens its mouth in the attempt of using the high pitch sound to attack Unit 01 with again. Unfortunately for it, Shinji had predicted that the enemy would try that, so he makes Unit 01 give the enemy a forceful uppercut with its right fist and punches the enemy in the jaw. Dummy Eva 15's mouth is forced shut due to the uppercut as its head tilts backwards for the same reason while Dummy Eva 15 tries to hold its ground. Unit 01 then takes a step back while pulling its right arm behind it and swiftly throws a straight-punch that's aimed at the enemy's face.

In response, Dummy Eva 15 directly stares at Unit 01's fist as it deploys its A.T. Field in the attempt to block the punch, but Dummy Eva 15's A.T. Field isn't able to hold off the combine strength of Unit 01's punch and its A.T. Field neutralizing it. It then immediately shatters as Dummy Eva 15 gets hit in the face, which causes it to start to fall backwards.

Unit 01 instantly grabs onto both of arms of the enemy and keeps it from falling. It then pulls the enemy towards it and quickly lets go of the enemy's arms. After that, it grabs the enemy's head with both hands and starts to apply pressure on it. Dummy Eva 15 then drops to its knees while grabbing onto Unit 01's hands as it desperately tries to break the grip that Unit 01 has on it. After a couple of seconds of trying to make Unit 01 release its grip, the enemy opens its mouth and lets out the high-pitch sound.

Shinji grits his teeth from irritation as he endures the pain from the noise. He then yells out while forcefully pushing his controls, "Shut up, already!" With that said, Unit 01 applies more pressure to the head of the enemy Eva as it's seen that part of the metal of Dummy Eva 15's head is starting to crack.

Asuka and Mari had just arrived while Asuka's still being irritated by the enemy's sound, but it doesn't keep her from being worried since she just heard Shinji yelling. She's now looking at Unit 01 with concern radiating from her. "The last time Shinji was like that was during the simulation."

Mari looks towards the left to look at Unit 02 while being a bit confused by what Asuka just said. "Simulation?"

Asuka suddenly appears on Mari's left side screen and nods while being quite serious. "Yes. We had gone through a simulation training to prepare ourselves to fight against SEELE." She then turns her attention towards Unit 01 while having a worried expression. "Shinji had lost it sort of like this. It was because the simulation Evas we fought looked like the Mass Production Evas that hurt me."

Mari calmly nods while still looking at Asuk's Eva. "I understand." She then turns her attention towards Unit 01 and smiles. "For the people he loves, he would go insane if it means he can protect them."

Asuka smiles to herself as she nods in agreement and thinks, "He sure would."

Dummy Eva 15 stops letting out the sound as its head continues to crack more and more. It then points its wings towards Unit 01 and tries to strike it with them, but Unit 01's A.T. Field easily blocked the attack while Shinji yells out with a fierce tone, "It's useless! You can't beat me because I have people to protect!"

Right after Shinji had said that, Unit 01 crushes the enemy's head, which causes the head to blow up. Dummy Eva 15 then lets go of Unit 01's hands while its arms drop to the ground. At the same time, its wings had dropped to the ground as well. Then, it slowly sways from side to side a little and finally falls to the ground on its left side.

Touji suddenly starts to cheer with a happy expression as he throws his left hand up to do a fist-pump. "Way to go, Shinji! Ya got that bastard good!"

Misato sighs out of relief while placing her left hand in the middle of her chest. As she does that, her eyes are closed while dropping her head down. "Thank, God." She then slowly opens her eyes while smiling. "He did it."

Unit 05 walks up to Unit 01 as Mari's image appears on Shinji's top screen while smiling. "Shinji..."

Shinji's head is lowered for a moment as he's trying to catch his breath. He then looks up at Mari with a joyful smile. "I won, Mari."

Mari giggles after hearing what Shinji said and then closes her eyes as she nods at him with a content smile. "You sure did."

Misato stares at the main screen for a moment and then looks at Kaji while being quite pleased. "That's two down and one to go."

Kaji nods in agreement while smiling back at Misato. "Yup. We're on a roll." He chuckles.

Unfortunately, Maya interrupts the good mood by gasping out of horror while watching her screen. She then turns her head to the right to look at Misato and yells out with a frantic tone, "Colonel!"

Misato quickly looks at Maya with a concerned expression. "What is it?!"

Maya responds with an urgent tone. "It's Unit 03! Its synchronization has gone over 200%!"

Misato's stunned by what she just heard while pulling back a little. She then looks up at the main screen and yells out while being very worried, "Not him too!"

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

So was I right? Was the episode pretty impressive? I think it was. *Smiles* I left you all with a major cliffhanger, and right now, there might be some death threats coming my way, but I had to end it right there. Just look forward to the next one, and thanks for reading.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	15. Episode 15

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

Hey, guys. Here's the continuation from where I left off in the last episode. You guys can consider this episode as part two, although I have no intention of labeling it that. Get ready for an intense battle and for something unexpected. Neon Genesis Evangelion is the property of Gainax and I do NOT claim that I own any part of it.

Episode 15: The Ace's Confirmation

The scene starts off by focusing on Unit 03 and Dummy Eva 14 as they're currently staring each other down. Rei, Kensuke and Hikari are still in their respective Evas while being at a safe distance away from Unit 03. This is so that they don't get caught up in the battle that's about to commence. *Side Note: Everything that you're going to be reading next is taking place during the same time frame that Shinji, Asuka and Mari were fighting the other two enemy Evas. This means that no one in Central Dogma is currently paying attention to what's happening or what's going to happen between Nero and Lucas due to them focusing on the other battle that's being held. I'll make it obvious when Central Dogma's personnel return their attention to this fight and get involved again*

Lucas is steadily breathing while calmly staring at Unit 03 and thinks to himself, "Its been almost four years... Four years since I last saw him." He pauses for a moment as he closes his eyes while lowering his head. After several seconds go by, Lucas lifts up his head and looks at Unit 03 again with determination residing within his eyes while muttering to himself, "I'm going to show him...! I'm going to show him how much I've improved!" Dummy Eva 14 then points its right arm at Unit 03 as it quickly starts to gather energy that's the color black at the end of the barrel.

Nero narrows his eyes while tightening his grip on the controls. He then smiles while being a bit excited and says to himself. "Here we go." Nero promptly makes Unit 03 disconnect its Umbilical Cable while the timer on the right side screen suddenly starts up at five minutes and counting.

Lucas notes the disconnection of Unit 03's Umbilical Cable as the signal to begin while nodding to himself. Dummy Eva 14 then fires its positron cannon, which releases a powerful black blast, and with amazing speed, it heads straight for Unit 03. In response to this, Nero quickly leans forward with determination brimming while pushing the controls. This makes Unit 03 dash towards the blast with a good amount of speed. Due to seeing Nero's action, Hikari yells out with a horrified expression, "Nero, what are you doing?!"

Without any response from Nero towards Hikari's question, Unit 03 ducks its head while still running towards the enemy Eva. Due to Nero's quick action, Unit 03's able to dodge the blast, and that results in the blast crashing down onto the area that's behind Unit 03. This creates a large black explosion while the other pilots are astonished at the fact that Unit 03 was able to dodge the attack so easily.

Lucas grits his teeth while being a bit annoyed and says with an irritated tone, "As straight forward as ever, I see!" He then lunges forward a little while yelling out, "You really haven't changed at all!" With that outburst, Dummy Eva 14 points the same positron cannon that it fired with a little bit lower. It then lets out another black blast, which reaches Unit 03 a lot quicker due to Unit 03 heading towards Dummy Eva 14.

Kensuke's concerned by what he just saw and yells out, "Nero, heads up!" Unit 03 then swiftly jumps up into the air as if Nero had taken note of Kensuke's cry and dodges the blast. After doing that, it does a cork-screw spin with multiple rotations while being upside down as it's right above Dummy Eva 14.

Lucas panics a little bit while snapping his head up to look at Unit 03. "Shit!" He then points the right positron cannon at Unit 03 and tries to fire it again.

Nero smirks after seeing the positron cannon being pointed at his Eva and says softly to himself, "Way too slow..." Unit 03 pulls out a Prog Knife from its right pylon and holds it in its left hand. The black Eva then instantly stops spinning while staring at Dummy Eva 14 and throws the Prog Knife right into the barrel of the positron cannon that was pointing at it.

Lucas is in shock as he looks at his Eva's right arm and sees that some electricity starts to be produced by the positron cannon. He then yells out while being quite upset as he's leaning towards the screen he's looking at, "Damn it! He short-circuited it!" He then makes an expression of realization and quickly looks up at Unit 03 while being very worried.

At the instant Lucas looked up, Unit 03 descends and lands right on top of Dummy Eva 14. It then swiftly wraps its left arm around Dummy Eva 14's right cannon while placing its right hand on the cannon to have a better grip. After doing that, Unit 03 starts to pull the arm in the attempt of ripping it off while leaning backwards with both feet pushing against Dummy Eva 14's chest. This action pisses Lucas off while he's gritting his teeth and then yells out in rage, "Oh no you don't!" With that defiant cry, Dummy Eva 14 points its other positron cannon at Unit 03 and it starts to gather energy that's the color white.

Nero quickly turns his head to look at the other positron cannon while his eyes widen from concern and thinks, "That's not good!" He then pulls on the controls to make Unit 03 let go of the right positron cannon and quickly jumps off of Dummy Eva 14, which at that exact moment, a white blast is released.

Fortunately, Unit 03 was able to dodge it by going right above where the blast went while doing three back flips. The blast then disappears into the sky as Unit 03 lands on the ground while being on all fours and stares at Dummy Eva 14 with an intense glare.

Kensuke makes a surprised expression as he's looking at both Unit 03 and Dummy Eva 14 while having his back against his seat. "That was insane! How did he dodge that?!"

Rei thinks to herself while being quite amazed by what she just saw as she's leaning a bit forward. "His ability as a pilot is extraordinary. To be able to make his Eva maneuver like that is simply incredible." She then pauses for a moment with a bit of curiosity dwelling within her as she mumbles to herself, "I wonder what else he's capable of."

Lucas stares at Unit 03 with annoyance being displayed on his face and then says to himself in his normal volume, "I can't believe it! He's just as fast with operating an Eva as he is when he fences!" He then starts to remember a specific memory of something that had occurred not too long after he first me Nero.

*Flashback: March 29, 2012*

The memory starts off with showing Nero and Lucas while they're around the ages of ten/eleven. They're facing each other while being a bit of a distance away from one another. It appears that they're about to begin their fencing session. Lucas is wearing the fencing clothing and this time he has the mask on to protect his face. Nero is wearing street clothing and has no form of protection other than his sword.

As they're about to begin, Vanessa and Casey are on the left side watching while Evan is on the right side as he's playing the role of the referee. Vanessa, Casey and Evan are currently wearing fencing clothes as well, which means they have the intention of fencing too at some point. *Side Note: They're all in the same gym-like room that they were in during the flashback that Nero had. This suggests that this is where they commonly practice fencing.*

Lucas shows determination as he points his fencing sword that he's holding with his left hand at Nero. As he does that, he's standing in a left, sideways position and says confidently, "I'm going to beat you this time for sure!"

Nero smirks at Lucas' statement while holding his fencing sword with his right hand as it's resting on his shoulder in a horizontal angle. "Then let's do this."

Evan calmly looks back and forth between both of them. "If you're both ready, then you can begin whenever."

Lucas nods with confidence to what Evan had said as he lowers his stance a little and then yells out, "Alright!" Afterwards, he takes multiple steps towards Nero with a good amount of speed while still being in a sideways position. The moment he felt that he was close enough to Nero, he started to thrust his sword in the attempt to strike Nero's stomach.

Nero responds by quickly lifting his sword off from his shoulder while taking a step back with his left leg. He pulls back the blade of his sword to be right next to his left rib region and then swiftly swings it to the right to block Lucas' strike. They're placed into a stand-off while Nero looks at Lucas with a confident smile.

That causes Lucas to grit his teeth out of irritation as he thinks, "Damn it!" He then forcefully pushes Nero's sword towards Lucas' right side, which results in making Nero turn around. As Nero turns, Lucas looks at Nero's back and smiles as he thinks with excitement, "There's the opening!" He then pulls his sword back into position and thrusts it to strike Nero's lower back region.

Nero's eyes widen as he sees what Lucas is going for out of the corner of his left eye. He then quickly dodges it by placing his left hand on the floor and doing a single-handed cart-wheel flip towards his left. Lucas is shocked by how Nero dodge his strike as he's looking at the area that Nero was at before he dodged. He then slowly looks towards Nero and is immediately surprised while pulling his sword back a bit.

The reason for Lucas' surprise is because Nero's standing in a right sideways position with his stance being low. At the same time, Nero's holding his sword upside down with the tip pointing towards Lucas. He then smiles at Lucas with confidence brimming.

Having seen that, Lucas makes a worried expression as he tries to back away from Nero. Unfortunately for Lucas, Nero steps in at that very moment and quickly strikes Lucas' left rib region three times in a row with the tip of his sword. After doing that, Nero says joyfully, "Tough break."

Lucas backs away completely as he grabs onto his side with his right hand while looking at it. "Damn it!" He then realizes something while looking up towards the ceiling briefly. Right after that, Lucas snaps his head to the left to look at Evan with concern. "Was that-?!"

Nero cuts Lucas off by nodding with a mild smile on his face while getting out of his stance. "Yes it was. That was three hits."

Evan looks at Nero with a moderately surprised expression. He then clears his throat with his right hand closed in front his mouth as his eyes are closed. He then puts his hand down while calmly looking at Lucas. "If that's the case, that means Nero wins."

Having heard Evan's verdict, Lucas instantly becomes depressed while still looking at Evan. He then throws his head back, places both of his hands on his head while still holding the fencing sword in his left hand, and yells out with his eyes closed, "Crap! I lost again!"

After yelling that out, Lucas drop his hands down, clenches his hands with anger arising, and looks at Nero with an intense glare. "I hate that not only you use acrobatics when you fence, but that you can move so fast!" He then points at Nero with his fencing sword. "It's not even fair that you're that fast!"

Casey sighs due to Lucas complaining as her head is lowered and her arms are crossed. She's currently holding her protective mask with her left hand while holding a fencing sword in her right. She then looks at Lucas with an exasperated expression. "I don't know why you complain about Nero's speed. He's always been that fast since we met him over a year ago."

Afterwards, Casey slightly tilts her head to the right while giving Lucas a look of pity. "Plus his acrobatics is part of his style, so if you can't beat him while he's using his personal style, then there's no point in you two facing each other anymore."

Vanessa nods in agreement while standing on Casey's left as she's looking at her for a moment. She then turns her attention towards Lucas with a bit of sympathy being displayed on her person. "She's right, Lucas. If you're going to keep whining about Nero's speed and acrobatics, you should just give up on fighting him." She then lets out a small giggle while tilting her head slightly to the left. "Anyway, you can never come close to beating him. He's just plain better than you. Even if he chose to not use his acrobatics. It would be best if you just quit."

Lucas grits his teeth while having momentarily lower his sword as he looks at Vanessa with annoyance. He then looks at Nero and lifts up his left arm to point his sword at Nero again while saying with determination, "I'm not going to give up! I'm going to beat you, Nero!" With that said, Lucas turns around while putting his arm back down and starts to walk away.

Nero tilts his head to the right with a curious expression as he sees Lucas walking. "Where are you going?"

Lucas suddenly stops and turns his head to the left to look at Nero with a bit of confusion. "You beat me already."

Nero chuckles while getting to a sideways stance with his right foot forward and points his sword at Lucas. "If you're so hell-bent on beating me then from this day forward, we'll face off in a best two out of three match. That way you have more of a chance of beating me. And if you can defeat me even once, then that means your determination was enough to beat someone who's seemingly better."

Lucas is surprised by Nero's suggestion as his mouth had dropped a little bit. He then happily smiles while getting very excited as he clenches his right hand into a fist. "Sounds good to me! And you better not hold back on me. I don't want to hear any excuses from you when I win!"

Nero continues to smile and nods at Lucas. "I promise that I will give you everything I got."

Lucas keeps smiling while nodding back at Nero with happiness overflowing. "I'm glad to hear that."

*End of Flashback*

Lucas finishes his remembrance of that time with his eyes still locked on Unit 03. He then smiles with determination showing as he tightens his grip on the controls, leans a bit forward and yells out, "It's time to kick things up a notch!"

Unit 03 continues to be on all fours while looking at Dummy Eva 14. Nero then smiles as he heard what Lucas said and nods. "You just read my mind." After saying that, he takes a quick look at the timer and sees that there's still over 3 minutes left. He then thinks to himself while still smiling, "And I won't have to worry about you running out of power after I let you go berserk."

Nero returns his attention back to Dummy Eva 14. Unit 03 then suddenly lunges towards the enemy, and as it's in mid-air, Unit 03 pulls out its second Prog Knife that's in its left shoulder pylon with its right hand while it continues to soar through the air.

Dummy Eva 14 responds by pointing its left positron cannon at Unit 03 and then fires out a white blast with no hesitation. At that exact moment, Nero yells out with a confident expression, "Berserker, over 100%!" Suddenly, Unit 03's A.T. Field appears while its eyes glow bright orange. The A.T. Field barely shields Unit 03 from the blast as it's still soaring towards Dummy Eva 14.

Lucas is shocked while Dummy Eva 14's positron cannon continue to fire the blast that was blocked. "How the hell is that possible?!"

Dummy Eva 14's blast slowly dissipates as Nero smiles at the fact that the blast was blocked. His Eva then collides into Dummy Eva 14 and Unit 03 swiftly grabs a hold of Dummy Eva 14 with its left hand while sort of being on top of it. After that, Unit 03 attempts to stab the left shoulder of the enemy while holding the Prog Knife upside down.

Seeing Unit 03 attempt to stab his Eva causes Lucas to be stunned for a moment. He then snaps out of it and quickly makes Dummy Eva 14 points its left arm upward while aiming for Unit 03's right arm, which is the arm that has the Prog Knife in its hand. Dummy Eva 14 fires a white blast again and this completely surprises Nero as he is unable to move out of the way in time. Unit 03's right arm is completely obliterated by the blast, which causes Nero to cringe in pain due to his synchronization with the Eva while briefly screaming out. He then drops his head down and firmly grabs onto his right arm with his left hand.

Hikari desperately yells out while being very worried, "Nero!" She then attempts to make her Eva go to Unit 03's aid, but she's stopped when she sees Unit 00 lift up its left arm in front of the Extra Eva. After seeing that, Hikari looks at Unit 00 with confusion taking over. "Why are you stopping me, Rei?! Nero needs our help! He just lost an arm!"

Rei continues to have her Eva facing towards the direction of Unit 03 and the enemy Eva while looking at them intently. She then says with a calm tone, "He said to leave it to him. We need to have faith in him and not interfere." After saying that, her hands begin to shake a little while holding onto the controls as she looks at them. She then mumbles to herself with a hint of sadness on her expression, "No matter how much we may want to help..."

Meanwhile, Lucas looks at Unit 03 while being in disbelief as he says softly to himself. "I actually got him..." He then smiles and nods to himself with confidence increasing while looking at Unit 03. "Alright! I finally got you, Nero!"

Nero smirks as he looks at Dummy Eva 14 while grabbing a hold of the controls again with both hands. "Congratulation. Here's your price." He then torques his body forwards, which makes Unit 03 quickly pull its right leg back and swings it upward.

As a result, the black Eva knees Dummy Eva 14 right in the face and sends it flying backwards a bit while putting some distance between them. Afterwards, Unit 03 lands its feet on the ground as Lucas is stunned from the sudden kick. Dummy Eva 14 then crashes onto the ground while rolling backwards a little bit until it stops. After stopping, it lies on the ground with its face planted on it.

Having witnessed that, Nero has a bit of a serious expression as he's watching Dummy Eva 14 while it's still lying on the ground. He then takes a quick glance at Unit 03's right arm and sees the full extent of the damage. After that, Nero smiles as he turns his attention back to Dummy Eva 14 and says to himself, "I'm very impressed. Lucas is one hell of a pilot."

Lucas chuckles while slowly making Dummy Eva 14 stand up and then yells out with a happy tone, "I heard that!" He breathes heavily while looking directly at Unit 03. "You actually complimented me and admitted that I'm a good pilot."

Nero keeps smiling while he cracks his neck a little bit. "I never once said that you weren't a good pilot. In fact, you're an amazing pilot. That's why I was happy to see that you were piloting that Eva." He then suddenly makes an emotionless expression and says with a somber tone, "It's unfortunate that it has to end though. I was really having a lot of fun."

Lucas gets a bit nervous as he mutters, "The way he just said that was really scary. I never heard him talk like that since he would always try to talk with a positive attitude. I guess he changed a bit after he left." Curiosity quickly takes over as he looks towards his left side. "Could it have something to do with what Keel said about him betraying us for some girl, and then losing her...?"

Nero closes his eyes while lowering his head and takes a deep breath. He then whispers, "Let's go... Unit 03." He quickly opens his eyes while looking up at Dummy Eva 14 and then yells out, "Over 200%!" With that outburst, Unit 03's mouth suddenly opens up and lets out a loud, horrific roar while tilting its body backwards a bit.

Lucas' body begins to shake while thinking, "He's not holding back, just like he promised." He then smiles as he makes Dummy Eva 14 point its working positron cannon at Unit 03. After doing that, Lucas yells out of excitement, "This is what I've been waiting for!" Dummy Eva 14's positron cannon then starts to gather white energy and quickly fires at Unit 03.

In response, Unit 03 bends towards the ground while spreading out its legs and extending out its left arm towards the side. Suddenly, a giant shock-wave comes out from its body due to the Eva's A.T. Field and hits the ground that's under it. This sends Unit 03 flying up into the air within an instant while also doing multiple different flips. Thanks to it being sent into the air, Unit 03 was able to dodge the blast. Unit 03 heads towards Dummy Eva 14 from above it while still doing a few flips. Lucas then looks up while being very surprised and yells out, "What the hell?!"

Then, as Unit 03 starts to descend from above, he quickly regains his composure with determination taking over. "Not this time!" Dummy Eva 14 then jumps backwards and dodges Unit 03. The black Eva promptly crashes its arm and legs into the ground, which the momentum caused a pretty big crater to be formed.

In the meantime, Nero's looking down at the ground for a moment while feeling a mild shock from the impact of the crash. He then looks up at Dummy Eva 14 with an impressed expression. "Good one! I didn't think you would have been able to dodge that!"

Lucas makes his Eva stand at a good distance away from Unit 03 while cautiously looking at it and mumbles, "To be honest, I wasn't too sure... Nero's ridiculously fast and agile. The only way I can beat him is by overpowering him with my cannon, but it's hard as hell to get him."

Kensuke's briefly in shock as he continues to watch the battle between Unit 03 and Dummy Eva 14. He then says with complete astonishment, "What the hell is this?! Nero's amazing! Even with a missing arm he's still making that Lucas guy back away! He was able to block the blast with his A.T. Field and he's able to make his Eva move like that! I could never dream of being able to do that! He's just plain amazing!"

Rei looks at Unit 04 with a calm expression and thinks, "Kensuke is right." She then turns her attention back to Unit 03 and continues to think. "But it's troubling how he's able to maintain such control of Unit 03 while his sync ratio is over 200%. Even Shinji has some lack of control over Unit 01 when it's at that point."

Misato's voice suddenly comes through the intercom and says with a worried tone, "Hey, guys! What's going on?!"

Hikari looks upward while resting her back against the seat as she's surprised to hear Misato's voice. "Misato, you're back! How are Asuka and the others?!"

Misato responds with a serious tone through the intercom. "They're fine. They were able to defeat the enemy Evas." She pauses for a brief moment and then says with an urgent tone, "Now tell me what's going on with Nero! His synchronization is over 200%!"

Rei replies to Misato's question while saying calmly, "He made his synchronization to be that high so he can fight Lucas more seriously."

Misato's image is instantly displayed on Rei's upper screen with concern showing on her face. "Are you serious?!" She then turns to the left to look at Ritsuko. "How's that possible?!"

Ritsuko watches the main screen that displays Unit 03 and Dummy Eva 14 facing off. She has an expression of disbelief as she looks at Misato out of the corner of her eyes. "I don't know... To have complete control of the Berserker Mode is something I thought was impossible."

Kaji looks at Misato while standing on her right and says firmly, "From what we saw earlier, even Shinji has a hard time controlling Unit 01 while being over 200%."

Touji looks at Misato and Kaji, who are on his right, while being quite surprised. "Does that mean Nero's better than Shinji?! But I thought Shinji had a higher sync ratio than him!"

Misato turns her attention towards Touji with her eyes widening as she thinks, "He's right! If Nero has better control during Berserker Mode than Shinji, that means Nero's a better pilot! This also means that..." She then snaps her head back to look at the main screen while being very surprised as she thinks, "Nero's been hiding his true capabilities!" Her eyes then narrow with a serious look taking over her face while thinking, "But why would he do that...?"

Meanwhile, Unit 03 suddenly dashes towards Dummy Eva 14 with incredible speed. As it does that, Unit 03 is bent forward a bit with its left arm extended back as Nero's brimming with determination while thinking, "Let's see what you got up your sleeve, Lucas."

Dummy Eva 14 quickly points its positron cannon at Unit 03 in response and it's about to let out a blast while Lucas is very focused as he mutters to himself, "Not yet... If I fire too soon, he'll dodge it. The only way to get him is to fire at point-blank range with no possible way of him dodging it."

Unit 03 continues to head towards Dummy Eva 14 and it's about to come into contact with it. Lucas maintains his focus while still having Dummy Eva 14 aim its positron cannon at Unit 03. He then grits his teeth and thinks to himself, "It's now or never!"

The energy of the positron cannon builds up to maximum capacity and it's ready to let the blast out. Nero then confidently smiles as he makes Unit 03 swing its left arm to grab the cannon and covers the end of the barrel where the blast would come out from. This action shocks Lucas as he pulls his head back a little bit and yells out in horror, "What are you doing?!"

Nero whispers to himself while making a slightly demented expression, "300%..." Then, the white stripes that are on Unit 03 suddenly start to glow while the end of the cannon's barrel starts to be slowly engulfed by a sapphire-like colored essence followed by veins developing on it. This quickly spread all the way to the shoulder of Dummy Eva 14.

While that happens to the Eva, the same thing happens to Lucas' left arm. This causes him to yell out as he brings up his arm towards his face to look at it while being terrified. "What the hell is this?!" He then looks at Unit 03 with a distraught expression while moving his hand out of his face. "What are you doing to me, Nero?!"

As that transpires, Rei has a stunned expression as she slowly says to herself, "That's... the same as..." She then has a sudden flashback of Unit 03 while being classified as the 13th Angel and that causes her to feel a chill go down her spine.

After also seeing what Unit 03's doing, Misato's overcome with worry as she turns her body towards Maya and Ritsuko to look at them. "What the hell's happening?!"

Maya's frantically typing while looking at her screen. "I can't believe this! Unit 03 is contaminating the enemy Eva!" She then looks at Misato with concern notably being on her person. "It's the same thing that happened with the 13th Angel and the 16th Angel!"

Misato thinks to herself with seriousness being displayed as she's biting her left thumb's nail. She also has that hand clenched into a fist as she's still looking at Maya. "I wasn't here for when the 13th Angel attacked, but I was informed that it produced a type of acid that was trying to infect Unit 00. The 16th Angel had also targeted Unit 00 with the same ability and got a lot farther. Coming into contact was all it needed to infect the Eva."

With that thought completed, Misato turns to look at the main screen while putting her hand down and thinks while being a bit irritated, "For some reason, Nero's able to make Unit 03 do that again, but I have no clue how he's doing it!"

Lucas starts to panic as he looks back and forth between Dummy Eva 14's arm and his arm. He then grits his teeth and grabs onto the left control with both hands. After doing that, he attempts to fire the cannon while yelling out as he's looking at Unit 03, "Cut it out!"

Suddenly, without warning, Unit 03 crushes the end of the barrel and quickly lets go of it while jumping backwards to get away from Dummy Eva 14. This is because after crushing the end of the barrel right when it was about to fire, the barrel quickly started to crack and light started to shine out. It then blows up due to the blast being unable to come out of the cannon. As a result, Lucas screams out in pain while holding his left arm with his right hand as his head's tilted back with his eyes closed.

Nero doesn't give Lucas any time to regain his composure as he quickly makes Unit 03 run towards Dummy Eva 14 while yelling out with an amused smile, "No time to rest, Lucas!"

Lucas instantly looks at Unit 03 as it's in front of his Eva while being very shocked and yells out, "Fuck!" He then quickly turns his attention to his controls and leans forward. He grabs onto the right control with both hands and then makes Dummy Eva 14 swing its right arm towards Unit 03's head since it can't fire that cannon.

Nero's a bit surprised as he sees out of the corner of his eyes that the right arm is heading towards him. Immediately after, he grins while Unit 03 stops running and ducks its head down to dodge the right arm's swing. Nero then says to himself while looking up at Dummy Eva 14, "Still too slow, Lucas."

Lucas makes a stunned expression as he looks down at Unit 03 and thinks, "Damn it! Why does he have to be THAT fast?!" Unit 03 then pull its arm back and thrusts it towards Dummy Eva 14's stomach. Dummy Eva 14 quickly deploys its A.T. Field in the attempt to block Unit 03's strike.

Unfortunately for Lucas, Unit 03 effortlessly breaks through the A.T. Field and its hand penetrates Dummy Eva 14's stomach. Lucas then screams out in pain while grabbing onto his stomach with both of his hands as he's bent forward. At the same time, determination resonates from Nero's eyes as he's leaning forward while looking at Dummy Eva 14. Unit 03 continues to maintain its hand inside of Dummy Eva 14's stomach while Nero calmly mutters, "The pain doesn't stop here, Lucas."

Lucas slowly peers at Unit 03 while having his right eye closed as he's breathing heavily due to the pain. "Fuck...! That shit really hurt...!" He then suddenly feels a weird sensation coming from his stomach, which startles him, and makes him open his closed eye as they both widen.

After that, Lucas drops his head down to look at his stomach while being very shocked and yells out, "No!" It's then revealed that his stomach region is displaying multiple veins through the plugsuit with the same sapphire-like color leading them and engulfing Lucas' stomach area. This means both he and Dummy Eva 14 are being contaminated by Unit 03 again.

Everyone in Central Dogma is shocked as well while watching the enemy Eva's body continue to be contaminated by Unit 03's left hand. Lucas then quickly slams his back against the seat and leans backwards, which results in him facing towards the ceiling while starting to feel an intense pain from where the contamination is.

The contamination slowly spreads to his chest as Lucas is holding tightly onto each side of the seat while it continues to be displayed by the veins that are showing on the part of Lucas' body that's being contaminated. He then screams again with his eyes closed while Nero maintains his determination as Dummy Eva 14's body shows where the contamination is spreading. After seeing that, Nero closes his eyes for quick moment while calming his expression and taking a deep breath. He then opens his eyes with an intense glare and yells out with an annoyed tone, "What are you going to do, Lucas?! Are you going to lose to me again?!"

Lucas' eyes instantly open with surprise due to hearing what Nero just said as he's looking at the ceiling. He then slowly looks towards Unit 03 while being enraged. "No...! Not this time!" Lucas quickly grabs onto the right control with both hands. Dummy Eva 14 then swings its right arm towards the right due to it still being towards the left after having missed the previous swing and tries to strike Unit 03 while Lucas passionately yells.

Unit 03 easily blocks the strike with its A.T. Field and continues to maintain its grasp on Dummy Eva 14's stomach while Nero smiles a little. "That's not good enough, Lucas."

Lucas is now suddenly on his knees while still on the seat as he's facing away from the front screen. His eyes are focused on the back part of his seat with an exhausted expression. It's revealed that there happens to be a lever installed into the seat where he was sitting on top of the entire time. He then grabs onto it with a serious look on his face and pulls it up. After that, Lucas mumbles to himself as a cylinder-shape mechanism comes out. "I can't believe I have to do this, but I have no choice."

With that said, Lucas turns the mechanism 180 degrees to the left while grunting a little. He then forcefully pushes it down back into the seat, and at that moment, all the lights in the entry plug go off. Lucas turns his head towards the right to look at Unit 03 while calmly saying with a smile, "Heads up, Nero."

At that exact moment, Dummy Eva 14 had dropped down its right arm as it continues to be contaminated. Due to seeing the sudden drop of the enemy's arm, Nero becomes quite curious while tilting his head slightly to the left. "What just happened?" His question is then answered as the entry plug of Dummy Eva 14 suddenly shoots out.

Nero watches the entry plug while being consumed with worry and yells out, "Crap! That means...!"

Before Nero's able to finish that sentence, Dummy Eva 14 self-destructs and the blast hits Unit 03 while creating a huge explosion. Everyone in Central Dogma is stunned as they see the huge explosion spread out to a large distance. At the same time, Hikari has a distraught expression as she watches the explosion and mumbles to herself, "Nero..."

Kensuke watches the explosion as well while being unable to say anything as he can't believe what just happened. In Rei's case, her head's lowered as she tightens her grip on her controls and thinks to herself with concern being noted on her person. "Please... Be alright..." She then slowly looks up at the explosion and whispers, "Nero..."

Dummy Eva 14's entry plug crashes onto the ground while barely being at a safe distance away from the explosion. The entry plug then opens up and Lucas slowly stands up on his seat while revealing that the contamination on his body had stopped spreading, although still contaminated. He's now looking towards the explosion as a giant gust of wind suddenly heads towards and hits him. He does his best not to let it bother him as he's very focused on the explosion while his hair flutters around because of the wind.

Meanwhile, everyone in Central Dogma and the three pilots continue to watch the explosion for a little bit longer. The explosion then starts to slowly dissipate as smoke is made, which spreads out to a decent extent. After a few seconds, the smoke slowly clears up while the others are watching the smoke intently due to them hoping that Nero's alright. They're all then surprised in a good way when the smoke reveals a shadowy figure and clears up completely to show that Unit 03 not only having survived the explosion, but it didn't even receive any real damage from it. This causes everyone in Central Dogma to give out a sigh of relief while the three pilots are equally relieved to see Unit 03 in one piece.

Lucas on the other hand is in disbelief as he leans slightly forward while yelling out, "How the hell did he survive that?!" He then makes an expression of realization while pulling back a little. "Did Unit 03's A.T. Field protect him from the blast...?!" Lucas leans forward again while clenching his hands into fists. "But how did it come out of it with almost no damage at all?!"

Unit 03 starts to slowly take steps towards Lucas while having its body slouched forward and making a low, growling sound. As Unit 03 head towards Lucas, Nero has a smile on his face while saying softly with his head lowered, "That was a good try, Lucas... But I win this round..."

Lucas stares intently at Unit 03 as it continues to walk towards him. He then says to himself with worry brimming, "I'm screwed... I tried the cheapest way to beat him and I failed." After saying that, Lucas points his head down as his body starts to shake. He then closes his eyes while being very upset. "Damn it, I lost!"

Unit 03 unexpectedly stops walking at a small distance away from Lucas as it had stopped growling. It's now looking intently at Lucas while it's still slouching forward. Lucas hears that the black Eva had stopped walking and opens his eyes while making a surprised expression. He then hurriedly looks up while being slightly confused. "He stopped?!"

Nero's Eva slowly gets down on one knee and lowers its head to be pretty close to the ground. After that, Unit 03's entry plug ejects, but remains to be attached to the Eva. The plug then opens up as a rush of LCL pours out. Once the LCL had stopped, Nero casually comes out of it while standing on the head of Unit 03 and looks at Lucas.

Misato's shocked by Nero's action while taking a step forward. "What the heck is he doing?!"

Lucas' quite surprised while staring back at Nero and thinks, "Nero."

After Nero takes a few moments of looking at Lucas, he turns his gaze down to the ground. He then jumps off Unit 03's head, lands on his feet and looks at Lucas again as he starts to walk towards him. Lucas continues to stare at Nero while displaying some irritation on his person. "You could have ended it. I'm already beaten."

Nero stops walking at a small distance away from Lucas while calmly maintaining his focus on him. Lucas gets even more irritated by Nero due to him not responding to Lucas' statement and then yells out with intensity gleaming within his eyes, "Don't think that you sparing me is doing me any favors!" He then places his right hand on the middle of his chest. "I'm prepared to die for what I believe in!"

Hearing Lucas' declaration causes Nero to tilt his head slightly to the left without showing any real emotion. "And what is it that you believe in?"

Lucas yells out while clenching his right hand with determination showing as his hand is still placed over his chest. "That if I can at least defeat you, I won't be overlooked anymore!" He then extends his right arm out to the side while saying, "People will see me for who I truly am and know that I'm special!"

Nero smirks while lowering his head and looks at the ground with a sad expression. "If you need to defeat me to prove that then let's do it."

Lucas is immediately surprised by Nero's words while pulling his head back a little bit. "But...!"

Nero looks up at Lucas while still having his head lowered and keeps smiling. "Remember... Best two out of three." He then chuckles a little while lifting up his head to properly face Lucas.

Lucas continues to be a bit surprised for a moment, but then smiles and nods at Nero with determination returning. "In that case, it was a good thing I brought them!"

Nero's a bit confused by what Lucas just said while tilting his head slightly to the right with his right eyebrow raised. "Them?"

Lucas keeps smiling without responding and then turns to the right while looking into the entry plug. He then bends forward and grabs a hold of something. After doing that, he straightens his posture and turns to face Nero again while holding a fencing sword in each hand. The fencing swords don't have any sheaths to cover the blade as these are fencing swords that are used with the intent to kill. The ones that had been used in the remembrance were practice swords as the blade was a lot thinner than the ones that Lucas is holding for safety reasons.

Nero smiles while straightening his head and clenches his hands into fists out of excitement. "Who would have thought that it would come to this?"

Lucas slowly gets out of the entry plug and stands in front of it while still looking at Nero as he's still smiling. He then suddenly throws the fencing sword that's in his right hand at Nero. The fencing sword quickly reaches Nero and he catches it at the handle with his right hand. He then holds it up while looking at it with serious eyes. "Professional swords."

After saying that, Nero gazes at Lucas while placing the sword's blade on his shoulder and has it pointing in a diagonal angle behind his head. "I guess this will be to the death, huh?"

Lucas confidently nods. "I told you that I'm willing to die for what I believe in." He then points at Nero with his fencing sword, which is in his left hand, and yells out, "So don't hold back, because your life is on the line, Nero!"

Nero nods back at Lucas while smiling. "Don't worry, I won't."

Lucas smiles as his excitement increases. "Alright. By the way, there's a message that Chairmen Keel wants me to give you, but only if you can defeat me." He then lowers his sword and yells out, "So let's get started! Here are the rules!"

Nero thinks to himself while being a bit concerned, "What could possibly be the message?" He then rids himself of that thought as he moves the fencing sword from on top of his shoulder and holds it down towards the ground. "Alright, what are the rules?"

Lucas says with a calm tone, "It won't be a best two out of three since this will be to the death. That's the only way I would accept defeat. There won't be any points since that's obviously pointless in this situation, and we'll be free-styling the way we fight. Any form of swordsmanship is allowed and this time I won't complain about your acrobatics." He chuckles a little.

Nero's smile returns while thinking, "He won't have to worry about that much, anyway. I haven't practiced acrobatics in quite some time, and in this situation, if I'm not confident that I can pull it off then I won't do it." He then says out loud while having a determined expression, "If that's all there is then I'm fine with it."

Lucas nods while getting even more excited. After that, a random drop of water falls from the sky and hits the ground. Both of them see this and Lucas suddenly acts on it by dashing towards Nero while shouting, "Then let's start already!" He then swings his sword upward when he gets close enough to Nero.

In response, Nero quickly blocks the strike by pulling up his sword and swings it downward for the two blades to collide. They're then placed in a stand-off as more raindrops gradually fall from the sky while Nero stares at Lucas with an immense amount of focus.

Lucas smiles as he returns Nero's stare and says with confidence overflowing, "Although you always won our matches, I always had a handicap over you."

A hint of confusion can be seen on Nero's expression as rain starts to pour. "And that would be?"

Lucas chuckles a little. "That right is weak against left!"

With that said, Lucas slides his sword's blade across the bottom of Nero's blade and pulls it upward to move pass Nero's sword from the inside. He then swings it upward in a form of a thrust while aiming at Nero's chin. Nero's a bit of shocked as he sees the sword go towards his face and then quickly leans backwards. He barely dodges the strike while thinking to himself with his eyes locked on Lucas' sword. "That was way too close for comfort!"

Right after that, Nero happily smiles and looks at Lucas while thinking, "He may have a point about left-handed people having the advantage, but..."

Lucas gets a bit irritated and thinks to himself while glaring at Nero, "I should have known from his performance with his Eva! He's still as fast as he was four years ago!"

After regaining his base, Nero quickly pulls his sword back a bit and thrusts it towards Lucas' gut. This causes Lucas to worry as he quickly swings his sword downward and deflects Nero's strike right before it had connected. He then thinks to himself with irritation showing, "Shit, that was close!"

With the completion of that thought, it starts to rain harder as Lucas pulls his sword towards his right and does a back-hand, sideways swing that's aim at Nero's left ribs. Nero's sword had collided into the ground due to it being deflected as he glances towards where Lucas' sword is coming from with a tensed look.

Luckily, Nero pulls up his sword off the ground while switching his hand positioning so that he holds the sword in an upside down position and blocks the swing. Lucas then grits his teeth while being a bit annoyed that Nero was able to block his attack again. Right after that, he pulls back a little bit and looks at Nero with an intense glare. "You always seem to have an answer for my attacks."

Nero puts his arm down while facing Lucas with a crooked smile. "And you have obviously improved, but I think we should let loose since our lives are on the line." He promptly chuckles out of amusement.

Lucas laughs while tilting his head back with his eyes closed and shouts out, "I couldn't agree more!" He looks directly at Nero with determination once again and then dashes towards him.

Nero keeps smiling while bending forward a little as he waits to come into contact with Lucas. When Lucas reaches Nero, he starts to swing wildly in the attempt to hit Nero while making small grunting sounds. Nero dodges the majority of the attacks while blocking the ones that he couldn't dodge in time. A few attempts are made to strike Lucas by Nero while changing the positioning of the sword depending on which one would be better to strike with.

In Lucas' case, when Nero would try to strike him, he would mostly block them and try to take advantage. Unfortunately for him, due to Nero's speed, he was unable to connect any of his strikes and this would upset him while thinking, "Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! I'm doing a whole lot better than I normally would since I haven't gotten hit yet, but I bet it's because he hasn't practice fencing for a while! Either way, he's still fast as hell!"

Nero continues his attempts to strike Lucas while thinking to himself and maintaining his focus, "Lucas must have worked really hard to have improved so much. I'll most likely have to switch-up if I want to beat him."

Lucas dodges Nero's strikes and keeps swinging back when he has the opportunity while thinking to himself, "I have to find a way to break the equilibrium of this!" His eyes then widen from realization and smiles as he yells out, "I got it!"

In response to Lucas' outburst, Nero's a bit startled while being surprised as his sword collides with Lucas' sword. They're now in a stand-off once again while he pushes his sword against Lucas' with both hands. Lucas continues to smile while holding his ground and then nods to himself while thinking, "There it is." He then pushes Nero and his sword off to his right side. After that, Lucas looks at Nero as he elbows him in the face with his left elbow while putting a lot of force into the hit.

Nero's head snaps towards the left due to the force of the elbow after being hit on his right cheek. Afterwards, Nero staggers while taking a few steps back and tries not to fall due to him being a bit dazed for a moment. He then mutters to himself while slowly turning his gaze towards Lucas, "What the hell...?"

With the success of hitting Nero, Lucas rushes towards Nero and swings his sword in a left diagonal position while thinking with a content smile on his face, "Although it was a cheap move, it still set me up for my first strike on Nero!" Nero's eyes then widen while still being a bit shaky from the hit. Then, he suddenly grits his teeth while being quite upset as Nero quickly tosses his sword to his left hand. After doing that, he blocks Lucas' strike by swinging the sword sideways.

That action causes Lucas to pull his head back a little out of surprise due to how quickly Nero recovered from the hit to the face while having stopped running. "What?!"

Nero contentedly smiles while both swords continue to be connected. "Are you surprised?"

Lucas yells out from disbelief as he's leaning towards Nero, "There's no way! You're multi-handed?!"

Nero nods while still smiling as his entire body is dripping wet from the continuous downpour of the rain. "Yeah, and I have you to thank. If I had never met you, I would have never thought of learning how to use my left hand like I use my right."

Lucas continues to be in disbelief while taking a step forward with his right hand extended to the side as he's equally soaked. "You mean, you actually did that because of me?!"

Nero nods again while swiftly backing away from Lucas quite a bit, which results in their swords no longer being in contact with each other. He then lowers his left arm while maintaining a firm grip on his fencing sword. "Exactly. I actually already knew that you being left-handed would be trouble for me. So to be on equal terms, I decided to spend a lot of time practicing with my left hand." He chuckles as he tilts his head a slightly to the left. "Want to see how well I can use it? And don't worry; I'm not mad that you elbowed me since we DID agree on free style for this."

Lucas chuckles as he bends forward a little with both arms lowered. He then yells out with confidence as he glares at Nero, "If you say so! Show me what you got!" Lucas dashes towards Nero.

Nero promptly runs towards Lucas, and as he meets with him, he does a 270 degree spin by pivoting with his right foot while swinging his sword in a back-hand form from Lucas' left. Lucas quickly stops himself and blocks the swing. He's immediately surprised by how strong the swing is considering it's Nero's left-handed style. He then grits his teeth and pushes Nero's sword away. Nero responds by spinning back around while swinging his sword from Lucas's right this time.

Lucas gets startled a little, but quickly regains his composure while blocking the sword with his own. He then pulls his right fist back and throws a punch at Nero's face.

Nero sees the punch coming and smiles as he mutters, "Predictable." He promptly positions his head towards the punch and takes it right on the forehead.

Surprise overtakes Lucas' expression again while thinking, "Why did he do that?!" He then feels an intense pain coming from his stomach and looks down at it.

What had happened was while Lucas was being distracted by Nero's stunt, Nero had quickly pulled his sword down and stabbed Lucas' stomach, which the blade had successfully gone a few inches into it. Lucas then grinds his teeth while pulling away/ This makes Nero's sword come out of his body as Lucas staggers backwards while holding onto his stomach with both hands. He looks at his stomach and sees the blood steadily coming out from it.

With the sight of his blood, Lucas glares at Nero with a pissed off look and shouts out, "Nero!" He then moves his hands from his stomach and runs towards Nero while getting ready to strike. Nero intently watches Lucas with a bruise on his forehead due to Lucas' punch. He then tightens his grip on his sword while being very serious as he takes a step forward with his right foot and lowers his stance a little.

Afterwards, Nero swings his sword in a downward left diagonal angle with as much force as possible just when Lucas gets close enough to him. As Lucas reaches Nero, he responds by doing the exact same thing Nero did and swings his sword with all his strength. Their swords then collide with each other and suddenly, Nero's sword snaps in half on impact while the blade flies high up into the air right above them.

Nero's shocked by what just happened, looks up at the blade of the sword flying up towards the still raining sky and thinks, "Crap!"

Lucas is stunned for a moment as he's looking up as well. His eyes then widen while thinking to himself, "This is my chance!"

With that thought, Lucas turns his attention back to Nero and pulls his sword back towards his torso. He then thrusts it towards Nero's stomach while happily thinking, "I finally got him!"

Misato suddenly yells out from concern while watching Nero as he's moments away from being stabbed by Lucas' sword, "Nero!"

Nero sees Lucas' strike out of the corner of his eyes while being a bit surprised and then instantly catches Lucas' blade with his right hand. Shortly after that, some blood can be seen trailing down the blade due to it having cut Nero's hand after tearing through the plugsuit. Even though this caused Nero to feel some pain, at least he was able to stop Lucas' strike.

Lucas flinches at the fact that Nero caught his sword while not being able to believe that it just happened. He then yells out while leaning towards Nero, "No freaking way!"

After having blocked Lucas' sword, Nero returns his attention towards the sky and sees that the broken blade is descending right next to him. He then lets go of the handle of his sword and swiftly catches the blade with his left hand. Immediately after doing that, Nero turns to look at Lucas and relentlessly stabs him right in his collarbone with as much force as possible.

Hikari covers her mouth due to being shocked from seeing what Nero just did and thinks to herself while panicking, "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God!"

Rei and Kensuke watch on as well while being stunned. At the same time, everyone at Central Dogma is equally stunned while many like Maya are looking away due to not being able to keep on watching.

Lucas pulls his head back with his eyes closed as he screams out in pain. He then lets go of his sword and quickly backs away from Nero while grabbing the blade with his left hand. After that, Lucas opens his eyes to look at the blade and forcefully pulls it out.

At that exact moment, blood starts to slowly pour out from the area that was stabbed. Lucas then drops the blade and grabs onto the wound with his left hand while falling down onto the ground. He lies on it while still screaming in pain with his eyes closed again.

Nero watches him while dropping Lucas' sword since he still had a hold of it after Lucas let it go. He then slowly walks up to Lucas as exhaustion can be seen on Nero's person.

Meanwhile, Lucas continues to be in pain as he's gritting his teeth. He then opens his eyes to look at Nero while having a pain filled expression. "What are you waiting for?! End it!"

Nero slowly shakes his head with no real emotion showing. "I don't need to. Those two wounds by themselves will kill you. I hit vital areas, so you'll die within the next few minutes."

Lucas is stunned by Nero's emotionless words for a brief moment. He then looks away from Nero without turning his head while sadness consumes his entire being. "Oh... So I guess, I lose..."

Sadness quickly arises from within Nero as he lightly grits his teeth and gives out a sharp nod. "Yeah..."

Lucas smiles while slowly looking at Nero. "Things haven't really changed between us, huh? But I'm fine because at least I went down swinging." He then lets out a soft laugh.

Nero closes his eyes, lowers his head and shakes his head in disbelief while smiling. He then lifts his head up to look at Lucas and gets down onto his knees while placing his hands on his lap. "So you're happy even though you didn't get what you wanted?"

Lucas coughs a little while nodding as the blood from both of his wounds continue to pour out. He then says while breathing heavily, "I'm happy... Because I got to fight you again. I didn't really... Expect me winning, but I... Still hoped for it." Lucas pauses for a moment while looking at the sky and says with a spaced out expression. "Nero...?"

Nero slants his head slightly to the left with a hint of curiosity being displayed. "What is it?"

Lucas laughs while straining his voice a little and then slowly looks at Nero out of the corner of his eyes. "Do you think that... If it wasn't for my obsession of beating you... That we could have been friends?"

Nero pauses for a moment while looking up at the sky as his eyes reflect it. He then smiles while looking back down at Lucas with sincerity gleaming in his eyes. "I already had considered us as friends since we first met."

Lucas' eyes instantly widen from shock while saying with a surprised tone, "Really...?! Even though all I was interested in was defeating you?!" He coughs a little with his eyes closed due to straining his voice too much.

Nero nods while still smiling. "Of course. Our friendship was the very first one I ever had. I really appreciated having you in my life, and I enjoyed all the times we fenced together." He then says with pure sincerity in his voice, "You're my best friend, Lucas."

Lucas' stunned for a moment while staring at Nero and then suddenly smiles with tears starting to go down his face. "Thank you, Nero. That means a lot to me." He becomes quiet for a few seconds while wiping his tears away with his left hand, puts his hand down onto his stomach and regains some of his composure as he's still laying on the ground with a serious expression taking over. "Now listen, because here's the message from Keel."

Concern quickly replaces Nero's sincere expression as Lucas then says something to Nero. After hearing what Lucas said, Nero's expression has frozen as he's unable to say anything in response.

Lucas gives Nero a sad smile and slowly closes his eyes afterwards as he whispers, "Goodbye... Nero..." Lucas' head promptly drops towards the right as he stops breathing.

At that exact moment, the rain started to let up and stopped falling as Nero continues to be frozen with his eyes locked onto Lucas' corpse. After several seconds pass by, Nero closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and stands up. He then gradually opens his eyes to look at Lucas again with dull eyes and says with a sorrowful tone, "Bye, Lucas. Say 'Hi' to God for me." Nero turns away from Lucas and steadily walks to his Eva with both hands clenched as the blood from his right hand drips a little.

As Nero heads to his Eva, there's an intense atmosphere at first in Central Dogma since everyone there just saw the death of a teenage boy. Suddenly, some members start to celebrate due to looking at the positive side of the situation while others can't utter a word. Misato keeps watching the main screen with sadness resonating in her eyes and thinks, "How did it turn out like this?"

Kaji looks at her with a worried expression and says with a reassuring tone, "I know what you're thinking. Even though he was with SEELE, a person so young didn't have to die."

Misato turns her attention to the floor while clenching her fists as she's trying not to cry. "I didn't know what to do, Kaji... I couldn't think of what to say to Nero. I could have told him to try to capture the pilot instead of killing him, or even tell him to try to persuade the pilot to join us. Anything would have been better than letting Nero kill him..."

Kaji's expression changes to a sad one as he thinks to himself, "Misato..."

In the meantime, Nero had climbed back into Unit 03 and has made the entry plug retract back into the Eva. He turns the black Eva back on and LCL quickly start to refill the plug for some reason. As this happens, Nero's eyes are locked onto the controls while manipulating them in a sophisticated manner with his back against the seat and whispers, "Confirmation time, huh?"

Then, Unit 04 walks up to the left of Unit 03 as Kensuke says to Nero through the intercom while sounding enthusiastic, "Good job, Nero! You got that SEELE guy real good!"

Hikari's Eva is at a bit of a distance away from the two of them as she's surprised by what Kensuke just said. She then yells out while being quite upset, "Kensuke! What's wrong with you?! He had to kill someone who was our age and you make it sound like it isn't a big deal!"

Kensuke looks towards Hikari's Eva while smiling and says with a hint of sympathy, "It couldn't be helped, Hikari. Nero did it to protect everyone and that guy was the enemy anyway. How else are we going to beat SEELE if we can't do what he did? It's like the military, Hikari."

Nero briefly laughs softly due to what Kensuke had said and then sighs with his eyes closed. He then gazes at Unit 04 with a malicious smile. "You're right, Kensuke. It couldn't be helped."

Kensuke turns his attention back towards Unit 03 and yells out while nodding, "Exactly!"

Nero's eyes became dull again with no emotion showing from his expression as he's intently staring at Unit 04 and mutters, "And here's something else that can't be helped."

With those words from Nero, Unit 03 suddenly extends out its arm and fiercely grabs onto Unit 04's face. This shocks Kensuke as he yells out of horror and concern, "What are you doing, Nero?!"

Misato's surprised by what she just saw Unit 03 do as she takes a few steps forward. "Nero! What's the meaning of this?!"

Maya gasps while looking at her screen and then turns to look at Misato with horror. "Colonel! Nero's synchronization has gone back over 300%!"

Misato looks at Maya while being consumed with fear. "What did you say?!"

Nero continues to have Unit 03 hold onto Unit 04's face as he's leaning forward with his hands firmly holding onto the controls. At the same time, there's no real change to Nero's expression while his head is lowered. "If he wants confirmation, then I have no choice..." He then peers at his main screen with a cold stare. "But to give it to him."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

I don't have much to say. If any of you want answers for what just happened in the end of the episode, I ask you to just wait for the next one. Things are going to be intense as hell and you all will definitely enjoy it! I hope. *Smiles*

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	16. Episode 16

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

First off, I would like to thank all the people who have followed, favorite and reviewed my story. I really appreciate that there are people who found my story interesting enough to have read up to this point. I really hope I've made it enjoyable for all of you reading this. My creativity will be really put to the test for this episode and I just hope that you all will like it. I will now state again that I do not claim owning Neon Genesis Evangelion and I will never falsely state anything of the sort.

Episode 16: The Pain That Comes From Betrayal Is Merciless. Just As The World We've Come To Know.

The scene begins with Unit 03 maintaining its hold on Unit 04 by the face with its left hand, which is the only hand it has since it had lost its right arm during the fight with Dummy Eva 14. As this transpires, Rei, Hikari and everyone in Central Dogma watch with shocked due to them seeing what Nero's doing. At that exact moment, Units 01, 02 and 05 appear at a pretty far distance away in the south part of the area while the pilots of those Evas have no idea of what's going on.

Desperation can be seen on Kensuke's face as he makes Unit 04 grab onto Unit 03's hand with both of its hands. Unit 04 then tries to loosen Unit 03's grip while Kensuke yells out with concern in his voice, "Nero...! What are you doing, man?!"

Nero continues to have Unit 03 hold onto Unit 04's face. As he does this, he stares at Unit 04 with an emotionless expression. "What I must do." Nero looks towards the right to look away from Unit 04 and mumbles to himself, "Anyway, there's something I have to confirm. So one way or the other, this was bound to happen." He then returns his attention back to Unit 04 with a faint smile.

Meanwhile, the Extra Eva suddenly runs up from behind Unit 03 while disconnecting its Umbilical Cable and reaching out to it with its left hand. At the same time, Hikari yells out with a pleading tone, "Nero, stop!" Her Eva's then instantly stopped by Unit 03's A.T. Field, which results in her Eva's hand colliding into Unit 03's A.T. Field.

That momentarily surprises Hikari as she pulls her body back quite a bit. She's then filled with determination while pushing the controls forward. That action makes the Extra Eva place both its hands on the A.T. Field in the attempt to penetrate it. Unfortunately for Hikari, the Extra Eva's unable to penetrate the A.T. Field and this causes her to yell out while her focus is on the A.T. Field, "I can't get through! It's too strong!"

Nero pays no attention to the Extra Eva while still staring Unit 04 down as he thinks, "You're going to be first, Kensuke..." Suddenly, Unit 03's hand starts to slowly contaminate Unit 04's face just like it did with Dummy Eva 14.

In the meantime, Hikari accepts that she can't get through Unit 03's A.T. Field with her Eva's bare hands. So she decides to make her Eva pull out a Prog Knife from each pylon. After doing that, Extra Eva continuously strikes at Unit 03's A.T. Field with both knives, although it seems like the attempts aren't doing anything as well. As Hikari sees her attempts fail, she can't help be engulfed by worry while yelling out, "What's going on, Nero?! Why are you doing this?! You need to let go of Kensuke before you get yourself into real trouble!"

With that plea from Hikari, the scene changes for a moment to focus on everyone in Central Dogma. Many of them are still in shock at what's happening and others can't even believe that what's happening is real.

Maya yells out while looking at her screen with a horrified expression, "There's contamination in Unit 04's head! The pilot will be in severe danger if this continues any longer!"

Misato watches the main screen with concern radiating as the screen displays what's happening while thinking, "I can't believe what I'm seeing! What's he thinking?!"

After thinking that, Misato snaps her head to look at Maya with seriousness resonating in her eyes and says with a commanding tone, "We have no choice! We have to sever Unit 03 and its pilot's synchronization! Afterwards, we'll retrieve Nero and get some answers!" She then focuses back onto the main screen while thinking with a bit of anger dwelling inside of her, "And he better have a damn good explanation!"

Maya nods while briefly looking at Misato and then turns to her screen. Right after that, she starts to type on the keys, but she's suddenly overcome with shock as her screen displays the words "Access Denied". She then turns her head to look at Misato again and yells out, "I can't get through! Our access to the Eva has been disconnected!"

Misato immediately looks at Maya with panic arising. "How's that possible?! Didn't we have control over Unit 03 the entire time?!"

Ritsuko analyzes Maya's screen with her posture bent towards it while standing to Maya's left and says in a loud volume, "It appears that we didn't! We're able to keep an eye on the status of the Eva, but somehow, we launched Unit 03 without knowing that our control over it had been severed!"

Fuyutsuki leans forward with his right hand placed on top of Gendo's counter-like desk that's in front of him. As he does that, he's in disbelief while yelling out, "Who could have done such a thing?! The only people who can do that are the tech team and Dr. Akagi, and I know for a fact none of them did it!"

Gendo responds to Fuyutsuki's concern with a stern tone as he sits to the left of Fuyutsuki while being in his famous pose. "There's one person who could have done it."

As a result of Gendo's statement, everyone in Central Dogma looks at him while being stunned. Gendo then says while maintaining a stern tone, "Nero. He's the only person who could have done it."

Misato takes a few steps towards Gendo with a shocked expression. "That's impossible! There s no way he knows how to do that!"

Gendo turns his attention towards Misato with no real emotion being displayed. "That's where you're wrong, Katsuragi. Nero has the intellect to be able to do such a thing. He possibly did it the very moment he first piloted Unit 03."

Misato yells out while having an expression of disbelief, "How could that be?! Wouldn't someone have noticed it?!"

Ritsuko looks at Misato with a decent amount of calmness. "It's possible that it was overlooked considering we have so many Evas to worry about. Out of all the routine checks we make, we don't really check if we have control or not. We just assume that we do."

Misato snaps at Ritsuko with stress brimming. "But then that means?!" She then takes a step back, turns her attention towards the main screen with a distraught expression and thinks to herself, "That means... Nero's been planning on doing this from the beginning..."

At the same time, Touji's looking at Misato while momentarily being in shock. He then turns his attention towards the main screen while thinking, "What the hell, Nero...? Ya promise to me... That ya protect them..."

The scene suddenly returns its focus to Unit 03 while it continues to slowly contaminate Unit 04. In the meantime, the Extra Eva continues to make attempts in breaking through Unit 03's A.T. Field while the pilots of Units 01, 02 and 05 are still watching from a pretty far distance. Also, Unit 00's pilot watches on from the north while being a bit closer than the others.

As Rei continues to watch with a stunned expression, she thinks to herself, "I don't understand. He was working with us not long ago and now he's attacking Kensuke."

Then, Kensuke screams while grabbing onto his face with both hands out of feeling intense pain as he throws his head back. "Oh my God! Someone help me! It hurts so much!" He then slowly moves his hands down from his face a little while looking at the ceiling. After that, it's revealed that his face has some dilated veins on it with the same sapphire-like coloring that his Eva's receiving while Kensuke keeps screaming.

Hearing Kensuke scream snaps Rei out of being stunned and then torques her body forward while saying with worry brimming, "You must stop, Nero! You're hurting, Kensuke!"

Unit 00 disconnects its Umbilical Cable just like the Extra Eva had done and sprints towards Unit 03 from behind while running up next to the Extra Eva's left. It then stops right there and collides with Unit 03's A.T. Field with both hands.

Nero glances at both Unit 00 and the Extra Eva with a cold look while uttering to himself, "Even with both of you together, there's no breaking through."

Kensuke continues to scream while slowly losing his consciousness and thinks to himself, "Why... Nero...?" Suddenly, Unit 04 shuts off and becomes motionless. At that exact moment, Kensuke stops feeling the intense pain, but is unable to maintain consciousness and passes out as the inside of the entry plug goes dark with a red-tint coloring.

Misato breathes heavily while bending over a little with her eyes locked on the floor. "Did we make it in time?"

Ritsuko narrows her eyes with intensity showing as she doesn't veer off her attention from Maya's screen while nodding in response to Misato's question. "We did, though the pilot had taken some extensive mental damage from the contamination. We'll have to check him as soon as possible."

Misato glances at Ritsuko after hearing what she said without changing the positioning of her posture. Afterwards, Misato straightens her posture and focuses back onto the main screen while saying with a commanding tone into a private line so that Nero doesn't hear the order, "Rei, Hikari! Kensuke's connection with Unit 04 has been disconnected so he's no longer at risk! Try to get Unit 03 away from him!"

Fuyutsuki glares at Misato with a serious expression. "Colonel! You haven't given them the order to treat Unit 03 and its pilot as the enemy! What are you waiting for?!"

Gendo instantly looks at Fuyutsuki out of the corner of his eyes with no emotion emitting from his person. After that, Misato turns around to face Fuyutsuki while being very surprised by his words. She then turns her head towards the left to look away from him with a hint of sadness being displayed. "I just..."

Fuyutsuki punches the counter-like desk with his right hand while being overcome with anger. "He almost killed the Fifth Child! His actions are inexcusable and it's apparent that he's working for SEELE! He was here to infiltrate NERV, take over one of our Evas, and now, he's using it against us!"

Hyuga turns his chair sideways to the right to look at Fuyutsuki and says with a slightly nervous tone, "We don't know that for sure, sir. If he is with SEELE, why did he kill SEELE's pilot?"

Fuyutsuki snaps his attention towards Hyuga while clearly still being upset. "Do you think SEELE cares about its pilots?! Akaya was most likely ordered to have done it to deceive us! Or even for the sole purpose of getting rid of a pilot that SEELE may have thought to be useless!" He then peers at the main screen with seriousness taking over. "One way or the other, he just proved how heartless he is, and that he's now our enemy."

Misato stares at Fuyutsuki for a moment with a stunned expression. She then swiftly turns back towards the main screen and thinks while being quite worried, "If Nero really is working for SEELE, then Kaji might be right about him being a clone of Shinji. It's possible for them to do that with the thought of playing some mind games with the children. After all, I could imagine fighting someone who looks like Shinji being really tough." Misato's squint her eyes with a serious look brimming as she grits her teeth while thinking, "Not only that, Nero had developed a relationship with the others while being here. That will come into play as well."

Gendo continues to look at Fuyutsuki and thinks, "I haven't ever seen Kozo act this way. He must be upset mostly because the pilot I told him to have faith in is actually with SEELE." He then pauses for a moment as he looks at the main screen while thinking, "I had hoped you rid yourself of SEELE, but it seems that Keel still has a hold on you, my son."

The focus turns to Nero as he calmly stares at Unit 04. At the same time, Unit 03 maintains its hold on it as Unit 00 and the Extra Eva continue to make attempts at getting through Unit 03's A.T. Field. Nero then says with a plain tone while leaning quite a bit towards the left screen that shows Unit 04, "It looks like Unit 04 is no longer operating. They must have cut off the synchronization." He slowly turns his eyes towards the Extra Eva while cynically smiling. "You're next." With that said, Unit 03 quickly takes a few steps forward while turning its body to face Unit 00. As it does that, Unit 03 lifts up and tosses Unit 04 at Unit 00 with a back-handed sideways swing of its arm while letting out a slight grunting sound.

Rei's caught off guard by what Unit 03 just did and doesn't have enough time to react as Unit 04's back crashes into Unit 00. This causes it to fall to the ground while having Unit 04 lying on top of it. In response, Hikari instantly looks to her left with a surprised expression as she saw what had just happened to Unit 00 and yells out of concerned, "Rei! Are you alright?!"

Nero chuckles as Unit 03 appears right in front of the Extra Eva while it bends forward a bit with its eyes locked on the Extra Eva. Right after that, Nero yells out with a commanding tone, "Don't take your eyes off your enemy!"

Hikari immediately looks at Unit 03 while being stunned at it suddenly appearing so close to her Eva and gasps afterwards. Unit 03 then pulls its only usable arm back and quickly thrusts it upward as it's aimed at the Extra Eva's chest. The hand pierces the chest plate as the Extra Eva is lifted off the ground due to the strength of the strike and it's held up in the air by Unit 03.

Meanwhile, Hikari screams in pain with her head thrown back as she's grasping onto her chest with her right hand while still holding the left controls with her other hand.

Seeing this causes Touji to panic while screaming out towards the main screen, "Hikari!"

As Touji lets out that outburst, Misato's stunned again as she's unable to say anything and just keeps watching the main screen. Nero then looks up at the Extra Eva with a fierce expression and says with a cold tone to Hikari, which is possible since they can still communicate through the open channel, "It would have been better if you never became a pilot. Then I would have been able to avoid breaking my promise to Touji."

Hikari's eyes widen as she suddenly stops screaming. She then quickly looks directly at Nero with shock while thinking to herself, "Does that mean he doesn't want to fight me?! Or maybe he didn't want to fight any of us from the very beginning!"

Right after finishing that thought, Hikari feels an even more intense pain, which causes her to drop her head down and then sees that from her chest, she's being contaminated with the sapphire-like color with veins dilating. This scares her so much that she begins to panic as it can be seen on her face the full extent of her fear. She then desperately grabs onto the right controls and shouts out in a frantic manner while repeatedly pulling on the controls.

Doing that makes her Eva swing its arms around in a frantic way while colliding with Unit 03's A.T. Field as she shouts out with her head lowered, "I got to get away! I'm being infected by Unit 03! I have to get away!" She then tilts her head back with her eyes closed and screams out, "SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP ME!"

Touji keeps watching on with a worried expression. He then looks at Misato and yells out with a pleading tone, "Ya have to do somethin', Misato!"

Misato glances at Touji with uncertainty due to not knowing what to do to stop Nero. She then turns her attention back to the main screen with determination arising while yelling out in a commanding tone, "Disconnect synchronization of the Extra Eva, now!"

Nero overhears Misato's order due to her saying that through an open channel without realizing it. Unit 03 then pulls the Extra Eva towards its left as it's still held up in the air while Nero looks down towards the ground. "That's not going to be enough this time!"

Unit 03 ferociously thrusts the Extra Eva into the ground while letting out a loud roar as it's holding onto the orange Eva from the inside of its chest. Due to the impact of the colliding Extra Eva with the ground, the ground cracks underneath it.

Hikari screams out in pain from the impact of the Eva hitting the ground and also because of her synchronization with her Eva while her eyes are close. Unit 03 then firmly grabs on the Extra Eva's core unit, which is in its chest, and cracks it quite a bit.

Aoba promptly yells out with a shocked expression as he's looking at his screen, "The Extra Eva's core unit has been severely damaged! It's about to collapse and explode!"

Misato snaps her head towards Aoba for a moment with horror as she gasps a little. She then looks towards Hyuga and yells out while showing some stress and panic, "Quick! Eject the entry plug!"

Hyuga yells out while frantically typing as his eyes are glued to his screen, "I'm on it!" The Extra Eva's entry plug then ejects as it quickly heads away from Unit 03 and Extra Eva. After that, the entry plug crashes into a building that had not been retracted under the surface and stops right there while being at a safe distance away from both Evas.

Touji runs up next to Hyuga while still looking at the main screen and yells out with worry brimming, "Hikari!" He then turns his head to the right to look at Hyuga and says with a distraught tone, "Is she alright?!"

Hyuga calmly nods while staring at the main screen and responds with a composed tone. "She's fine. The entry plug is very durable against impacts like those, so don't worry too much about that."

Suddenly, the Extra Eva blows up as the explosion seems to have hit Unit 03, who was still holding onto the Extra Eva's core unit at the time. Unit 00 was hit by the shock-wave of the explosion, which sent it and Unit 04 backwards quite a bit while having still been lying on the ground. In the meantime, Unit 03 can't be seen due to the explosion as the suddenness of the explosion surprises everyone. They then regain some of their composure while they watch patiently as the explosion dies down after several moments pass by and smoke is formed.

Unit 00 slowly gets back on its feet and faces towards where the smoke from the explosion is located. Rei shows a lot of concern on her face while watching closely as she thinks, "His A.T. Field most likely protected him from the explosion just like when the enemy Eva self-destructed." She then tightens her grip on the controls and whispers to herself, "I can not let my guard down."

As Rei maintains her focus on the smoke, Unit 05 stands to the left of Unit 01 while Mari watches on with confusion being displayed. "I don't really get what's going on." She then looks at Unit 01 and Unit 02 with mild concern. "Why are they fighting? And what should we do?"

Asuka stares at the smoke with a worried expression as she says softly to herself, "I'm not sure why they're fighting, but considering that Nero just took out Kensuke and Hikari, plus both Rei and Hikari were fighting back..." She's then filled with sadness. "Then that means he's now the enemy." Asuka gets very upset with her head lowered as her hair covers most of her face and screams, "But why?! Why do we have to fight him, damn it?!"

Having heard Asuka's cry, Shinji stares at Unit 02 from his right with worry being displayed and mumbles, "Asuka... Is Nero really that important to you...?" He then turns his attention towards the smoke that's still slowly dissipating. After that, anger surfaces on Shinji's person as he says in a low volume, "But you aren't the only one who's upset! It just doesn't make sense! What could have made him do this?!"

Misato's image appears on Shinji's upper, left side screen with her arms crossed as she gives him a sad look. "I'll answer that, Shinji."

Shinji's a bit surprised by Misato's appearance while looking at her and thinks, "Misato...?"

Misato sighs with her head lowered for a moment and then looks up at Shinji while maintaining a sad look on her face. "We have no real evidence except for his actions, but we're assuming that Nero's a child of SEELE."

Shinji's eyes widen while being quite stunned as he pulls his head back a little. "What the...?"

Asuka's image instantly cuts in and appears on the left side of Central Dogma's main screen with Shinji's image on the right as the red-head shouts out in disbelief, "There's no way! I don't believe that!"

Misato looks at Asuka while being surprised at her outburst at first. Her sadness then returns to her expression while lowering her head a little. "Even if you don't want to believe it, it's the only explanation, Asuka." Misato lifts up her head to look directly at Asuka with a serious look taking over and says with a firm tone, "You and the others have to accept it and treat Nero as the enemy! He's no longer an ally, understand?!"

Asuka gets really mad as she frantically shakes her head in disagreement. Afterwards, she looks at Misato with intensity brimming. "I just can't do that! Not after all he's done for me!" She then places her right hand on the center of her chest. "He saved me from drowning! He took care of me when I was sick without expecting anything from me!" While Asuka says the following, she swings her right arm towards her side with her hand unclenched. "He helped me through the pain I felt after I found out about Shinji's feelings for Mari!" She then clenches her right hand into a fist while placing it back on her chest. "I just can't ignore all of that and fight him!"

Having heard Asuka' plea, Touji gets really upset and yells out while still standing next to Hyuga, "Ya gotta do it, Asuka! He tried to kill Hikari! You saw him try to kill her!" He then tightly clenches his right fist with his left hand on it while closing his eyes with his head lowered and passionately yells, "Do it for Hikari!"

Due to what Touji just said, Asuka's stunned for a moment and then suddenly hears a scream, which startles her. She quickly looks in front of her and makes a surprised expression because of what she sees as Unit 00 is still standing where it was when the Extra Eva blew up.

Right when the smoke had almost completely cleared, Unit 03's arm swiftly stretches out to a large extent from within the cloud of smoke and grabbed onto Unit 00's neck. Rei gasps for air, bends forward with her left hand holding onto her neck and has her other hand placed on her seat as her right eye is closed.

Misato quickly uncrosses her arms with a horrified demeanor as she yells out, "What the hell?! How is Unit 03 stretching its arm out like that?!"

Shinji had witness what just happened to Unit 00 with a baffled expression as he yells out, "I don't believe it! He was able to make it do the same thing!"

Misato hears what Shinji just said and appears on Shinji's side screen again with concern radiating from her. "What are you talking about, Shinji?"

Hyuga interrupts by turning to look at Misato and says with a slightly hesitant tone, "You see, Colonel... The 13th Angel was able to stretch out its arm just like that."

Misato's head snaps towards Hyuga with disbelief brimming as she yells out, "But there's no way Unit 03 can do that now! It no longer has the 13th Angel inside it, right?!"

Fuyutsuki looks at Gendo with a hint of concern and whispers to him, "She's supposed to be correct, Ikari. So tell me... Is she?"

Gendo's looking towards Misato with a serious expression as he's still in his usual pose and responds to Fuyutsuki's question. "It was believed that the 13th Angel had died during that fight with Unit 01 and that there was no harm in rebuilding Unit 03 using most of the parts we were able to salvage. This includes Unit 03's core unit since it was mostly intact." He then gazes at the main screen and sees Unit 03. "But we could be wrong."

Unit 03 is then revealed after the smoke completely disappears and it can be seen that the Eva didn't receive any damage due to it deploying its A.T. Field right before the Extra Eva blew up. It continues to maintain the same distance away from Unit 00 for a bit while still holding onto its neck as Unit 03 applies more pressure to it.

Rei continues to gasp for air with her head tilted upward and says with a pleading tone, "Nero...! Please, stop...!"

Completely ignoring Rei's plea, Unit 03 retracts its arm while maintaining a firm grip on Unit 00's neck. This results in it being pulled off the ground as it's brought towards Unit 03. The moment Unit 00 is close enough, Unit 03 lets go of it and quickly jumps up into the air a little as it hits a powerful drop kick to Unit 00's face. This sends it flying while Unit 03 does an elegant, five-star back-flip and lands on its feet as it faces towards the direction Unit 00 was sent flying.

Rei grits her teeth with pain noted on her expression as she's holding onto her controls. Unit 00 then crashes its back into the ground, but Rei's able to make it roll through and gets into a crouching position while facing towards Unit 03.

Having seen that, Nero chuckles a little while focused on Unit 00 and thinks, "Rei's quite resilient, but that's all she has going for her right now. With my synchronization barely over 300%, the only person who can actually fight me toe to toe is..."

Nero ceases his train of thought while glancing at the area behind Unit 00 for a moment and sees Unit 01. He then smiles slightly and says to himself in a low volume, "Just out of curiosity, I want to see what you and mother are truly made of. It will help me determine much better our differences." He turns his attention back to Unit 00 and forcefully pushes the controls forward. Unit 03 then suddenly dash towards Unit 00 while having its arm extended out behind itself.

Rei quickly braces herself as she watches Unit 03 head toward her Eva with a gleam of seriousness in her eyes while Unit 03 is seconds away from coming into contact with Unit 00. Then, out of nowhere, Unit 05 stands in front of Unit 00 while blocking Unit 03's path and immediately deploys its A.T. Field. Nero's a bit surprised by this action, but doesn't stop his Eva and lets it continue as it thrusts its hand towards Unit 03's A.T. Field and collides into it.

Mari smiles at Unit 03 while pulling her body forward with a firm hold on her controls as she confidently yells out, "Don't forget that I'm here, Nero! If you're now the enemy, then I have no choice but to take you down!"

Nero smirks while peering at Unit 05 and says with a calm tone, "I would like to see that." He then pushes his left control forward, which makes Unit 03 put more force into Unit 05's A.T. Field with its hand and suddenly, Unit 05's A.T. Field starts to crack.

Mari gasps while pulling her body back a little and yells, "Oh, crap! My A.T. Field won't be able to hold on much longer!" Unit 03 then forcefully pushes and completely breaks through the A.T. Field while reaching for Unit 05.

In response, Unit 05 dodges to the right and tries to gain some distance. Nero quickly looks towards his left out of the corner of his eyes with a profound look and then swiftly makes Unit 03 chase after Unit 05. Mari continues to maneuver her Eva around to maintain some distance while having Unit 03 face away from the other pilots. As she does this, she's thinking to herself, "Hopefully someone will take advantage 'cause I don't know for how long I can keep away from him!"

As Rei sees that Nero is now preoccupied with trying to get Unit 05, she nods to herself with determination being displayed. "This could be my only opportunity to attack him. Although, all I want to do is make his Eva non-operational. That way we can capture him instead of having to take his life." Unit 00 dashes towards Unit 03 and pulls out a Prog Knife in each hand while coming up from behind Unit 03.

Mari keeps backing away from Unit 03 with stress noted on her expression as she yells out, "I can't keep this up much longer!" Some surprise then replaces the stress as she sees Unit 00 closing in on the black Eva from behind.

That causes Mari to contentedly smile while thinking, "Perfect! Rei's going to get him!" She abruptly stops Unit 05 from continuing its evasion of Unit 03 and makes it thrusts both of its javelins towards Nero's Eva while thinking, "I'll make him focus on me while Rei gets him from behind! There's no way he'll be able to stop or dodge Rei in time with me distracting him!"

Unit 03 effortlessly blocks Unit 05's strike with its A.T. Field. Right after that, Nero shows some confusion on his person his head tilted a bit to the right and says to himself, "Why did she stop and attack me all of a sudden? She should have known that wasn't going to work after already seeing how strong Unit 03's A.T. Field is."

Nero's eyes suddenly widen as a bad feeling arises from within him. He then looks behind him and sees Unit 00 running towards Unit 03 from behind as it thrusts both Prog Knives towards the black Eva's back. Nero's briefly shocked by Rei's sneak-attack, but then smirks while being quite impressed. "Such an opportunist, Rei. I never expected that from you," He turns his attention back to Unit 05 with a slightly sinister look on his face. "Unfortunately for you..."

Then, as Unit 00's knives were about to strike Unit 03' back, Unit 03's A.T. Field appears and blocks the attack. This causes Rei to gasp a little while planting her back against the seat as she's engulfed by horror. At the same time, Mari's baffled by what just happened and yells out with her body leaning forward, "No! He was able to block both of our attacks!"

Nero lowers his head while still smiling. "It's time to divide and conquer." Unit 03 then expands its A.T. Field as it collides with both Evas in an instant. The force sends Unit 00 flying while pushing Unit 05 back to about a length of a half mile.

Shinji yells out with worry emitting from him as he pulls his body forward quite a bit, "Mari! Rei!"

Meanwhile, Misato has an expression of disbelief as she shouts out, "Damn it! He just used his A.T. Field as a weapon!" Unit 00 then crashes down to the ground while Rei is a bit shook up as her eyes are closed. After that, Rei opens her eyes and bends forward to look at the floor while making Unit 00 stand back up. She then looks up and surprise suddenly resurfaces as she sees Unit 03 right in front of her.

Unit 03 swing its arm in an upward diagonal angle with no hesitation showing and completely pierces through Unit 00's stomach without any effort. As a result, its arm comes out from Unit 00's left side where the pancreas would be located and leaves a big hole in that region. Misato then screams out while being overcome by concern, "Rei!"

With both hands, Rei grabs onto her stomach and left side with her eyes closed. She then lowers her head again while gritting her teeth. In the meantime, Mari makes her Eva rush towards Unit 00 and Unit 03 while yelling out with a worried tone, "I'm coming, Rei! Just hold on!"

In response to Unit 05's advancement, Unit 03 swiftly leaps backwards towards Unit 05 while turning Unit 03 in mid-air towards its right. It then gives a full sideways kick to the left side of Unit 05's head with its right leg. This causes Mari to give out a short yell while the shear strength of the kick makes Unit 05 lose its balance and falls to the ground on its right side. Mari feels a small amount of pain from her right side due to Unit 05 falling onto the ground as she's lightly gritting her teeth.

Rei frantically looks up with a worried expression since she heard Mari yell. She then sees that Unit 05 is on the ground and yells out with concern, "Mari!" Rei hurriedly removes her hands from her stomach and grabs onto the controls while looking at Unit 03 with an intense glare. "Nero, how could you do this?! Aren't we your friends?!"

Unit 03 had landed its feet on the ground in front of Unit 05 while still facing towards it. As it continues to face Unit 05, Nero turns his head to the right to look at Unit 00 from behind his Eva and says with a cold tone, "What ever made you think that we were?"

Rei's jaw drops a little while being shocked by what Nero said and by how he said it. She then becomes very upset while closing her mouth and tightens her grip on her controls. After that, she yells out while holding back tears that want to desperately escape from her eyes, "I can not believe you said that! You treated all of us with respect and you even promised Touji that you would protect us! You wouldn't have said that if you didn't truly care about us!"

Misato hears what Rei said with sadness overwhelming her being as she thinks, "Even after what Nero did, I can't be surprised that Rei and the others don't really want to fight him. And even though I had ordered them to regard him as an enemy, it doesn't mean they will be able to with no hesitation."

Nero turns Unit 03 to face Unit 00 with an emotionless look. "I did that so you all would drop your guard. How could I care about such fools that can be so easily tricked?"

Having overheard what Nero had said, Asuka's in shock while leaning her back against her seat and then mutters to herself, "That can't be true... I... Trusted him..."

A flash of memories involving Nero rapidly go through Asuka's mind and causes her to be overcome with anguish. She then bends forward and places her hands on her head with her head lowered while screaming out with a distraught tone, "It just can't be true!"

Shinji hears Asuka's cry while looking at Unit 02 with worry resonating in his eyes as he mumbles, "Asuka..."

Rei also hears Asuka's cry and turns her head to look at Unit 02 with concern brimming. She then gets quite angry, looks at Unit 03 with another intense glare and passionately says, "Are you listening, Nero?! You're hurting Asuka! She cares about you! We all do!"

Unit 05 slowly gets back up on its feet while facing towards Unit 03. Mari then stares at it with curiosity being noted while thinking to herself, "Hopefully Rei's getting through to him. I would prefer not to fight him anymore since in a way... I do consider him as a friend." After thinking that, Mari smiles lightly.

Nero closes his eyes with his head lowered and says with a sad tone, "Rei... I wish I could tell you to tell Asuka that I'm sorry."

Rei raises her left eyebrow while being confused by Nero's words. "What?"

Nero ignores Rei's question as he snaps his head up to look at Unit 00 with an intense stare. Unit 03 then dashes towards Unit 00 with incredible speed while Rei pulls her head back out of surprise with her eyes widening. Afterwards, Rei forcefully pulls on the controls and makes Unit 00 jump backwards to get away from Unit 03.

Unit 03 instantly ceases its pursuit and swiftly jumps into the air while doing two front flips. After doing that, the black Eva lands right behind Unit 00 while having its back towards Unit 00's back. Rei glances behind herself while panicking and then desperately tries to make Unit 00 stop from backing up into Unit 03. Unfortunately, she's unable to stop her Eva and is now dangerously close to Unit 03.

At the same time, Unit 03 turns around towards its left while pivoting with its right foot with its arm extended out. Unit 03 now faces Unit 00's back while swinging its arm in a sideways angle. Its hand then goes completely through the region that Unit 00 has the big hole it got from Unit 03 earlier and comes out the other end of the body. This results in Unit 00 being split in two as everyone in Central Dogma and the remaining pilots are all stunned by what they have just witnessed.

Rei screams out in pain while looking upward with her head tilted back. Unit 00 then shuts off as Rei passes out due to the intense pain she felt from her sync ratio with her Eva as a red and yellow warning sign appears on each screen that's displayed within the entry plug.

As that happened, both halves of Unit 00 fall to the ground and make a pretty loud impact with it. Afterwards, Unit 03 faces the defeated Unit 00 with its arm down as Nero shows no remorse while staring at Unit 00.

Mari continues to be stunned for a little bit longer as her eyes are locked onto Unit 03. She then grits her teeth while tightening her grip on the controls with anger arising. "Nero!" After screaming that, Mari makes Unit 05 charge towards the front of Unit 03.

The Black Eva responds by producing its A.T. Field and successfully blocks Unit 05 as it's head is in contact with the A.T. Field. Nero then nonchalantly looks at Unit 05 and says with a bland tone, "Seems like you're next, Mari."

Mari defiantly smile as she maintains her hold on the controls with her body bent towards the screen that displays Unit 03. "Don't think you'll be able to take me down so easily!" She then passionately yells while making her Eva retreat backwards a little to gain distance as Unit 05 thrusts both javelins into the A.T. Field. Unit 05's arms are now fully extended out towards Unit 03 as the tip pf the javelins are in contact with the black Eva's A.T. Field.

Nero slants his head slightly to the left while having a plain expression. "You know that won't do anything." With that said, Unit 03 sprints right under Unit 05's javelins and gets extremely close to Unit 05's chest while slowly lifting its arm backwards.

Mari smiles with content arising as she saw what Unit 03 just did while thinking, "His A.T. Field should be at its weakest when he's attacking! This is my only chance! The moment he attacks with his only good arm, I'll dodge it and get him!" Determination then takes over her expression while losing her smile and thinking, "But I can't hesitate even for a second or he'll block my attack and then I'm seriously going to be in trouble!"

Unit 03 lets out a loud grunt while swinging its arm in an upward angle that's aimed at Unit 05's chest. Mari responds by making Unit 05 lower its stance so much that it's now the same height as Unit 03's stomach region while Unit 05 moved a bit towards its left and barely dodges Unit 03's strike.

Confidence now overflows from Mari as she snaps her head up to look at Unit 03 and yells out, "It's all or nothing!" She then disconnects Unit 05's umbilical cable as Unit 05's rocket thrusters fire up. The rocket makes the same sound a shuttle would make as Unit 05's sent flying head first into Unit 03's torso.

Nero grimace out of pain due to Unit 05 having collided into Unit 03's torso while bending his body forward and grabs onto his stomach with his right hand. The power of Unit 05's rockets then sends them both flying to the sky with amazing velocity.

As his Eva shakes due to the vibrations that Unit 05's rockets make, Nero looks behind himself with a terrified expression and sees the sky. "What the-?!" He then looks back at Unit 05 with his eyes wide open. "What are you trying to do, Mari?!"

Mari maintains her focus on Unit 03 with determination while her Eva is shaking from the vibrations as well. Unit 05 holds onto Unit 03's body by wrapping both arms around its waist while still holding the javelins as it's below Unit 03. As both Evas continue to ascend towards the sky, Mari yells out with unwavering confidence, "I'm doing what I have to, Nero! You may have taken the friendships that you made with us for granted, but I would never do that!" She then drops her head down with her eyes shut. "Everyone here matters a whole lot to me... Even you!"

With that said Mari peers at Unit 03 as both Evas' ascension through the sky continues to an incredible distance away from the ground. "But if you're set on betraying us and hurting us, then I have no choice but to put my life on the line to protect my friends!"

Nero pulls his head back a bit with a dumbfounded look on his face. He then smiles, leans forward and says with a hint of curiosity, "Does that include Asuka? Because you two fought for a long time and you even stole Shinji's heart from her."

Mari hesitates for a moment while overcome with surprise due to Nero's words. She then cheerfully smiles while nodding in agreement. "Hell yeah! We've put aside our differences and now we're actually trying to be friends. For me to keep it that way, I'm willing to do anything!" Mari pulls on her controls while letting out a light moaning sound due to how much strength she had to put into pulling the controls. Unit 05 then slowly changes its direction towards the left as the rocket thrusters continue to have both Evas fly in the air.

In the meantime, Asuka's a bit surprised by what Mari had just said as she's looking up at both Evas in the air. She then smiles while saying softly to herself, "My sentiments exactly." Suddenly, Asuka makes a sad expression while still watching the two Evas and says, "But I wish it wasn't Nero she had to say that to."

After Asuka's sad statement to herself, Misato's image appears on Mari's right side screen with concern radiating from her. "Mari! You can't possibly be thinking what I think you're thinking?!"

Mari giggles lightly while closing her eyes and then turns her head to look at Misato's image with an amused smile. "That's quite a tongue twister, don't you think?"

Misato yells out with a commanding tone while being a bit irritated, "Answer the question!"

Mari eyes are instantly filled with sadness while turning her head to focus on Unit 03 and nods. "It's the only thing I can come up with. He's insanely strong. It's nearly impossible to even touch him with the way Unit 03's A.T. Field can protect itself from even explosions."

Misato's in shock for a moment while her head is pulled back a bit. She then leans forward while desperately shouting out, "Don't do it, Mari! With that altitude and force from the rockets, the impact will surely kill you both!"

Mari gives out a short laugh with her eyes closed as she lowers her head a little. She then opens her eyes to look directly at Unit 03 again as Unit 05 suddenly descends down towards the ground while taking Unit 03 down with it. She then yells out with determination resurfacing, "Like I said before! Nothing ventured, nothing gained! I'm not afraid of dying. That's just another part of life that everyone goes through! Anyway, I wouldn't mind doing this if it means protecting the people who I've come to care about!"

Nero rests his back against his seat as he gazes towards sky with disbelief and thinks to himself, "I can't believe she's THAT willing to give up her life for them." He then turns his head to the left to look behind him and sees that they're closing in on the ground. Afterwards, he smiles out of amusement while slowly looking at Unit 05 out of the corner of his eyes with sincerity and says softly, "I was right. You really are an interesting girl."

Mari continues to make both Evas descend while almost reaching the ground. After seeing how close they are, she drops her head down, tightly shuts her eyes and whispers, "Take care of Shinji, Asuka..."

Nero barely hears what Mari said while looking directly at Unit 05 with an immense amount of surprise. He then closes his eyes as he gives out a big, sorrowful sigh. After doing that, Nero smiles while saying, "Don't worry, Mari." He slowly opens his eyes and looks at Unit 05 once again. "It's not your time to meet God just yet."

Then, right when Unit 03's back was just seconds away from crashing into the ground, a giant A.T. Field appears right behind it and forcefully stops both Evas from crashing while making a loud, chiming sound. This cause Mari to gasp out of disbelief while pulling her body back as she sees the giant A.T. Field. She then torques her body forward and shouts out, "No fucking way! You have to be shitting me!"

As that transpire, Misato takes a couple of steps forward while being completely caught off guard and yells out, "That's impossible!" She then turns her attention to Maya with concern brimming. "Is that Unit 03's A.T. Field?!"

All Maya can do to give Misato a response is nod while having a shocked expression as her eyes are glued to her screen. As a result, Misato's even more surprised and then quickly looks at the main screen again while her focus is on Unit 03. Right after doing that, she says under her breath, "I can't believe... How incredible he is..."

Mari tightens her grip on the controls with a serious look as her head is shamefully lowered while whispering to herself, "Now what?! That was my last resort!" After saying that, she suddenly gasps for air while lifting her head up with her eyes wide open. Her expression then freezes as a sapphire-like color appears on her right cheek with veins dilating and slowly spreads through out her face. As this happens, Mari says while straining her voice, "What's... going on...?" She then loosens her grip on the controls, which results in Unit 05 releasing its grip on Unit 03 as it's revealed what exactly happened.

Nero had made Unit 03 place its left hand on the right side of Unit 05's face while having a good grip on it and started to contaminate it. As the contamination spreads, Nero smirks while calmly saying, "Even though it isn't your time to meet God, that doesn't mean this fight between the two of us is going to last any longer." Unit 03 then curls-up its legs underneath Unit 05 and places its feet up against Unit 05's chest. Afterwards, Unit 03 forcefully pushes Unit 05 off of it while sending it pretty high up into the air.

Shinji leans a bit forward and screams out with worry showing, "Mari!"

After sending Unit 05 up into the air, Unit 03 quickly rolls backwards with its only hand placed on the A.T. Field while next to the Eva's left cheek. This is for Unit 03 to arch its body to do a hand-stand and then plants its feet onto the A.T. Field with its hand still on it. After doing that, the A.T. Field disappears as Unit 03 elegantly lands its feet on the ground. Nero then cocks his head back to look at Unit 05 with a calm demeanor.

At the same time, Mari's completely stunned as her face still has multiple, dilated veins on it with some sapphire-like coloring. Unit 05 then slowly stops ascending into the air as it's facing towards Unit 03 and starts to descend right towards Unit 03 with some excessive speed. At the moment that Unit 05 is about to come into contact with Unit 03, Nero makes his Eva thrust its arm up towards Unit 05 and forcefully pierces right through its chest. This results in Unit 05's descent to suddenly stop while being held up above Unit 03.

Mari gags while feeling intense pain coming from her chest as her body's bent forward. She then closes her eyes, places both of her hands on the middle of her chest and gasps for air. Mari then opens her eyes while pulling herself backwards as she loses the light in her eyes. She promptly passes out with her eyes closed again while her body slams against the seat. Right after that, the inside of the entry plug shuts down as the room is now a red-tint color within the darkness.

Maya immediately receives a notification on her screen and seeing it horrifies her. She then turns her head to look at Misato and yells out with concern emitting, "The pilot has lost consciousness!"

Misato maintains her attention on the main screen with a serious expression after having heard what Maya said. She then folds her arms while thinking to herself, "That means we're down to Shinji and Asuka."

Irritation rapidly overtakes Misato's expression as she grits her teeth while thinking, "I still can't believe that this entire time we had a pilot that could come out and beat four of our pilots with just one arm! Not only that, he also has complete control over an Eva that has a sync ratio exceeding 300%!"

Misato closes her eyes while lowering her head and thinks with her irritation increasing, "And he just had to be the enemy with the goal to betray us after we considered him as a friend!" With that thought completed, Misato looks back at the main screen again while saying softly to herself, "Now we have to pray that together, Shinji and Asuka can defeat Nero. Because if not, then we're all screwed!"

Meanwhile, Shinji's in shock while looking at Unit 05 and sees that it's not moving at all. He then bites his tongue out of pure rage, and afterwards, screams out with intensity overflowing while making Unit 01 charge towards Unit 03, "NERO!"

Asuka watches Unit 01 run towards Unit 03 with concern emitting from her and yells out, "Shinji!"

Misato's very surprised by Unit 01's sudden charge towards Unit 03 while unfolding her arms. She then quickly regains her composure and shouts with a commanding tone, "Stop, Shinji! You can't take him on by yourself!"

Ritsuko urgently yells out to Misato after seeing something on Maya's screen with an upright posture, "Katsuragi! Shinji's synchronization has just jumped over 300%!"

Misato glances at Ritsuko out of the corner of her eyes with the same amount of surprise as earlier. She then looks back at the main screen while yelling out with a distraught tone, "This isn't going to be good! We've never seen two Evas over 300% fight before! There's no telling what's going to happen!"

Nero slowly turns his Eva to face towards Unit 01 while lowering its arm and drops Unit 05 to the ground that's on Unit 03's left. After that, Nero smiles slightly while watching Unit 01 run towards him. "It's about time you did something. I was starting to worry you were going to stand there all day."

Unit 01 closes in on Unit 03, gives out a loud roar and throws out both of its hands towards Unit 03. As Unit 01 does that, Shinji screams with pure anger drastically increasing right when Unit 01 is about to come into contact with Unit 03, "I'm going to make you pay, Nero!"

Gendo suddenly slams the palm of his hands onto the surface of his counter-looking desk as he's on his feet while bent forwards with seriousness brimming. "Shinji, stop!"

Shinji's eyes widen from surprise as Unit 01 quickly stops right before it came into contact with Unit 03's face while maintaining its arms extended out. Shinji then looks upwards with concern taking over as he's still holding onto the controls. "Father?"

Fuyutsuki snaps his head towards Gendo with a confused expression. "Why did you tell him to stop?!"

Gendo drops his head downward to look at his desk with his hands now clenched as he hesitantly responds to Fuyutsuki. "Because... Nero's my... He's Shinji's..."

Before Gendo's able to continue any further, Nero's image appears on Central Dogma's main screen. He casually smiles with his back resting on the entry plug's seat. "It's alright, Commander Ikari. You can tell them the truth. There's no need in keeping it a secret anymore."

Gendo shows a hint of surprise on his face, hurriedly turns his focus to the main screen and sees Nero.

Nero continues to smile while tightening his grip on the controls as he's now leaning forward. He then cocks his head slightly to the left with his eyes glancing upward as he says with a carefree tone, "On second thought, I'll tell them. I did say I would, right?" He looks at Gendo while saying that last part.

Misato stands sideways while repeatedly turning her head to Nero and Gendo with an immense amount of confusion. She then focuses her attention towards the main screen and asks with a stern tone, "What are you talking about?! What secret?!"

Nero chuckles with his eyes closed as his head's lowered. "It's about who I am." His image suddenly appears on Shinji's front screen. Nero then lifts his head up to look directly at Shinji with no real emotion showing. "Shinji... We look-alike for a reason. It isn't just a coincidence."

Shinji's a bit confused by Nero's words while his attention is focus on him. "What do you mean?"

Nero smiles while leaning towards the front screen that displays Shinji's image and lightly tilts his head to the left again. "I'm your brother, Shinji."

Due to hearing what Nero just said, everyone in Central Dogma all make a shocked expression while some of them even gasp as they continue to watch the main screen. In the meantime, Unit 02 is at a pretty far distance away while being behind Unit 01. It can be noted on Asuka's face that she's also shocked by what had been said and says softly to herself, "Nero... Is Shinji's... brother?"

Meanwhile, Shinji engulf with disbelief while pulling his head back a little bit as he keeps looking at Nero. "I have... A brother...?"

Nero nods at Shinji while still smiling. He then leans back against his seat with a layed back demeanor. "If you don't believe me, ask father." Nero's image disappears from both Shinji's screen and Central Dogma's main screen while Misato's still in shock for a moment.

Misato finally snaps out of it and quickly turns her attention to look at Gendo with concern as she yells out, "Is that true?! Is he Shinji's brother?!"

Gendo turns his attention towards Misato and nods at her with a plain look. "Indeed. He is Shinji's elder, twin brother"

Fuyutsuki suddenly grabs Gendo by the collar with his left hand and makes Gendo face him while clearly being upset. "That can't be! Yui never once mention that she had twins! She always spoke of Shinji as being her only child!"

Gendo looks at Fuyutsuki for a moment. He then looks away from him by turning his head to the left and says with a cold tone, "He was sent to an institution for him to be analyzed by some of the greatest minds in the world."

After saying that, Gendo looks at Fuyutsuki again. "He's an extraordinary person and he wasn't with us when you and I met again after the 2nd Impact. I had told Yui not to mention Nero's existence to anyone until he had returned to us, which he did..." An emotionless look then overtakes Gendo's expression as he says without changing the tone in his voice, "A few days after Yui's death."

Fuyutsuki's eyes widen as he slowly lets go of Gendo's collar. He then puts his hand down and continues to look at Gendo with a untrusting expression.

In Misato's case, her entire being is consumed with disbelief while slowly shaking her head. She then takes a step towards Gendo and yells out, "Then that means you lied to us! You had told us that they weren't related!"

Gendo turns to face Misato without an emotion being displayed. "I had no choice but to lie to you. I had promised Nero not to tell anyone. He said that he would tell all of you when he felt the time was right." He then looks up at the main screen that shows both Unit 03 and Unit 01. "Although, I didn't know he was still working for SEELE and that it would take him this long to tell the truth about who he is."

Nero stares intently at Unit 01 with an arrogant smile as he responds to what Gendo said. "I'm actually sorry about that. I was planning on telling everyone about who I really am before I had to initiate SEELE's plan, but due to father's outburst and desire to tell Shinji the truth, I decided to just admit it." Curiosity then appears on Nero's face while tilting his head slightly to the right. "So, Shinji... What are you going to do now that you know I'm your brother?"

As Unit 01 stands up straight with its arms lowered, Shinji hesitantly responds with a pitiful look on his face "I... Don't know..."

Nero narrows his eyes with a cold, emotionless expression arising. "Well, you'll have to figure something out soon... Because I know what I'm going to do."

The focus instantly turns to the members of NERV as they display their disbelief that Nero is Shinji's twin brother. Touji then looks at Misato while standing to her left again with worry showing on his face. "What are we gonna do, Misato?! There's no way Shinji's gonna fight Nero knowin' he's his brother!"

Misato looks at Touji with sadness brimming and says, "I don't know, Touji." She then looks up at the main screen. "Shinji will have to decide on what he must do. I can't possibly ask him to fight his brother with any expectation of Shinji killing him."

Touji makes a distraught expression while extending his left hand to point at the main screen. "Then tell Shinji to take him down without killing him!" He then puts his hand down while saying, "It would be much easier on him if ya told him that instead of tellin' him to kill his own brother!"

Misato maintains her focus on the main screen while replying back to Touji's statement. "I wish I could, but Nero's too strong to fight like that." She then looks at Touji out of the corner of her eyes. "Remember, he defeated Kensuke, Hikari, Rei and Mari all by himself. Shinji can't be holding back."

Touji's expression immediately shows despair as he slouches his posture. He then slowly turns his attention towards the main screen while thinking, "Though I'm still pissed that Nero back stabbed us and even broke his promise... If I was in Shinji's position and had to fight my brother, I coulda never done somethin' like that." Seriousness and concern replaces the despair that was on Touji's expression as he thinks to himself, "I don't envy Shinji right now."

With the completion of Touji's thought, the focus returns to Nero, who's intently looking at Unit 01 while rapidly tapping his right index finger on the top part of the right controls and says with a bland tone, "I'm waiting, little brother. What's it going to be?"

Due to him not expecting those words from Nero, Shinji's eyes widen out of surprise while thinking, "He just called me 'little brother'!" A sad look then takes over as Shinji lowers his head and mumbles to himself with tears starting to form, "I don't know if I can do this."

Nero continues to wait with a bit of irritation forming as he continues to tap his finger in an impatient manner. He then suddenly stops tapping his finger and firmly grabs onto the right control with that same hand. Afterwards, Nero pushes his body forward a little bit with skepticism showing on his face. "Shinji... Did it really make a big difference that I told you that we're brothers?"

Shinji's eyes widen again as he then looks up at Unit 03 with a stunned expression. Right after that, sadness returns as he looks away from Unit 03 by turning his eyes towards the right and hesitantly says, "Y-Yeah... I never knew I had an older brother, and now that I finally know that I have one, I have to fight him."

Nero narrows his eyes after hearing what Shinji had said and says with an emotionless tone, "You actually did know about me before this. We met once when I returned to Japan twelve years ago. It's just that you forgot, which pisses me off a little because you broke the promise you made to me that day."

Shinji looks at Unit 03 with a dumbfounded expression. "Promise? I made a promise with you?"

Nero nods with a serious look. "You sure did, and I'm not going to tell you what it was. You'll just have to remember it all by yourself because it's a promise no one else knows about. Not even father."

Shinji lowers his posture with a pitifully, sad look replacing his dumbfounded expression. "I'm sorry. I forgot."

Pure irritation overtakes Nero as he yells out, "Don't apologize! It won't make up for you forgetting!"

Unit 03 swiftly pulls its arm back and thrusts it out towards Unit 01 while Nero passionately says, "And if you can't decide what you're going to do, then I'll decide for you!"

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

For the next episode I will be adding in something from the Rebuild of Evangelion that I believe was the greatest thing I had ever seen and add my own spin on it. Look forward to it with great anticipation and thank you again for reading all my episodes so far. I really do appreciate it.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	17. Episode 17

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

Here it is! This is going to be my most epic episode yet, by my opinion. This will most likely wrap everything up that has been going on for FOUR episodes. I seriously never imagine that it would take four episodes to resolve this huge montage of battles that I used to set-up Nero's betrayal, but I'm happy it did because I think it would have been AMAZING if Neon Genesis Evangelion had a huge montage of battles last this many episodes. Well enough of my yammering. I don't want to keep you guys from the greatness of this episode.

Episode 17: Brothers

The scene resumes from where it left off with Unit 03 thrusting its left arm towards Unit 01 while Nero had let out his rage that was caused by Shinji forgetting a promise the two had made with each other. As Unit 03's left arm extends towards Unit 01, Nero glares at it with his body lunged forward as his rage can be seen on his expression.

Shinji gets startled by Unit 03's sudden attack and quickly tries to make Unit 01 pull back. Unfortunately, Shinji's reaction wasn't fast enough and Unit 03 grabs onto Unit 01's left arm and prevents it from backing away. This startles Shinji as he looks towards his left and shouts out, "Crap! He got me!"

Nero makes a devious smile and says in a smart-ass way, "I sure do." Unit 03 swiftly lifts up its left leg and forcefully thrusts it onto the left side of Unit 01's torso while pulling on Unit 01's arm.

As a result, Shinji screams in pain with his head cocked back as he's holding onto his left shoulder with his right hand. Unit 03 then starts to pull on Unit 01's left arm even more while pushing its left leg against the Eva's torso. As Unit 03 does this, Shinji continues to scream with his eyes closed as his left arm is now extended out towards the side while tightly holding onto it with the other hand.

Seeing this causes Asuka to show concern on her person while leaning forward, "Shinji!" Unit 02 then dashes towards Unit 01 while Asuka desperately says, "Nero, you have to stop! He's your brother!"

Nero doesn't react to Asuka's cry as he's intently staring Unit 01 down. He then forcefully pulls on his controls, which makes Unit 03 pull Unit 01's arm completely off from right above the elbow joint while its leg pushes Unit 01 away from it with blood uncontrollably gushing out. Unit 01 then staggers backwards a bit as Shinji cringes in pain with his head lowered while holding his left arm.

After a few seconds go by, Shinji slowly lifts his head up to return his focus on Unit 03 while having his right eye closed as he's breathing heavily. Unit 02 then runs up next to Unit 01's right while facing towards it and Asuka says with a concerned tone, "Are you alright, Shinji?!"

Shinji gazes at Unit 02 with an exhausted demeanor as he opens up his right eye. "I'm fine." He then looks at Unit 03 with a serious expression. "But I don't know if I can fight him."

Sadness fills Asuka's face as she stares at Unit 01 at first and then turns her attention to Unit 03. "I'm not surprised. If you fight him, you have to fight with the thought of killing him." She lightly lowers her head. "That's something you shouldn't have to go through."

Nero chuckles after overhearing what Shinji and Asuka were saying with his head down. He then snaps his head up to look at both Evas while Unit 03 releases its grip on the arm that was ripped off from Unit 01. After that, Nero says with an arrogant tone, "So, does that mean you're going to fight me instead, Asuka?"

Asuka's eyes widen while being a bit surprised by what Nero said. Sadness then resurfaces on Asuka's expression as she turns her head to the right to look away from Unit 03. "I guess... I would..."

Shinji looks at Unit 02 with worry brimming as he softly says, "Asuka..." He turns his attention towards the controls with a serious look arising and grabs onto them with both hands. Unit 01 then steps right in front of Unit 02 while facing towards Unit 03.

That action surprised Asuka as she looks at Unit 01 from behind. "Shinji?!"

Shinji stares Unit 03 down with determination being noted. "I'm not the only one who finds it hard to fight Nero, huh? I can tell. You really care about him, Asuka."

Asuka pulls her body back to rest on the seat with surprise being displayed on her face while not diverting her attention from Unit 01. Shinji then chuckles a little and says with a slightly amused tone, "It's kind of funny. It took you a long time before you were able to show that you care a lot about me. It even took you longer to be completely open with me."

With that said, Shinji calmly turns his head to the left to look at Asuka's Eva with a mild smile. "But from the way I saw you talking to Nero yesterday when we were coming back from the Sea Life Reserve, I could tell that you were able to be open with him in a way that you couldn't ever possibly be with me."

Confusion rapidly takes over as Asuka asks with her head slightly tilted to the left, "What are you trying to say?"

Shinji continues to smile while his attention goes back to Unit 03. "If you have feelings for someone, you should admit it to them instead of hiding it. I made the terrible mistake of not telling you about my feelings for Mari because I didn't want to hurt you. But I ended up hurting you even worse when I called you by her name. I learned that it's better to be honest than lie to the person you care about." He pauses for a moment as he turns his head to look at Unit 02 again. "Please, Asuka. Don't take as long as I did with being honest about how you feel."

Asuka straightens her head while making a stunned expression and thinks, "Does he think that I have feelings for Nero?! But how would he...?" Her thought is then interrupted when she sees Unit 03 suddenly charging towards Unit 01 and quickly yells out with an urgent tone, "Shinji, look out!"

Shinji promptly looks in front of him with concern due to Asuka's outburst. He then sees Unit 03 extending out its hand towards Unit 01's face and briefly screams out in distress. After that, Shinji desperately makes Unit 01 side step to the left while trying to dodge Unit 03's hand. Fortunately, Unit 03 misses Unit 01 as it continues moving forward due to its momentum.

Meanwhile, Nero gives off an annoyed look while quickly turning his head to his right to look at Unit 01. "Damn, I missed." He then looks ahead of himself and suddenly gasps while being surprised that Unit 03 is about to come into contact with Unit 02, which had been behind Unit 01 until it had dodged. That resulted in Unit 02 now being in the path of Unit 03's extended hand.

Unit 01 instantly stops its movement while facing towards Unit 02 as Shinji yells out of concern, "Asuka, watch out!"

In response, Asuka pulls her head back a bit while being startled. Right after that, she closes her eyes while dropping her head down and braces herself for Unit 03's contact. A few seconds then go by as Asuka slowly opens her eyes with a bit confusion brimming while thinking, "Why didn't I feel an impact?"

With that thought, Asuka hesitantly looks up and is immediately surprised as she sees that Unit 03's hand is right in front of Unit 02's face, but didn't come into contact with it. Mild concern then overtakes Asuka' expression as she bends forward a little and says softly, "Nero... He actually stopped himself from attacking me. But why?"

In the meantime, Nero's head had dropped down with irritation being displayed on his face and says under his breath, "Shit! Why did I stop?! I didn't need to! I have to take her out too, anyway. So why did I stop?!"

As Nero contemplates the reason for him not being able to follow through with the attack, Shinji's in disbelief while momentarily staring at Unit 03. He then snaps out of it while frantically shaking his head and looks at Unit 03 with some determination forming. After that, Unit 01 sprints towards Unit 03 with a good amount of speed while being ready to strike with its remaining arm. Nero hears Unit 01's foot steps and quickly looks towards his right with some worry showing.

Nero sees that Unit 01 is about to come into contact with his Eva and this causes him to narrow his eyes with seriousness resonating. Unit 03 then elegantly turns to face Unit 01 while pointing its left arm towards the purple Eva. Unit 03 then deploys its A.T. Field in front of itself as Unit 01 extends out its hand towards the black Eva and collides into Unit 03's A.T. Field. This makes a loud sound while a small shock-wave is created that causes the ground to shake immensely.

Unit 01's now at a stand-off with Unit 03 as both Evas' individual hand is on opposite sides of the A.T Field while reflecting each other. Unit 03 holds its ground while Nero looks intently at Unit 01 with a slight smile and then says with an excited tone, "This is what I've been looking forward to for all these years! To fight you was my own personal vendetta! I was always wondering which one of us was stronger, but in a couple of ways, I already have obtained my answer!"

An emotionless expression appears on Nero's face as he says with a somber tone, "Not only that, I actually would have been fine without ever fighting you."

Those words from Nero cause Shinji to be overcome with confusion while Unit 01 holds its ground as well. Shinji then yells out with a pleading tone, "Then why are we fighting?! You just said it would have been fine if we don't fight!"

Nero lightly laughs while closing his eyes and shakes his head. "You just don't get it, Shinji." He then looks at Unit 01 with a calm demeanor. "There's a difference between what I desire and what I have to do."

Disdain appears on Nero's face as he narrows his eyes and shouts out, "This world is full of hate and disgusting people who continue to ruin the world! They don't deserve to continue on living, and if God won't get rid of them...!" He drops his head for a moment while gritting his teeth with anger overflowing. Nero then snaps his head up while giving out an intense glare towards Unit 01. "Then I will!"

Asuka's shocked by Nero's declaration while unknowingly making Unit 02 back away from Unit 01 and Unit 03. "He can't be serious... Who would want something like that...?"

As Asuka tries to understand why Nero would want such a thing, Misato shows her horror as she pulls her body forward. "He actually wants to destroy mankind?!" She then narrows her eyes with a serious look taking over and says softly to herself, "SEELE sure found the perfect person to fight for them."

After saying that, a bit of sadness appears while Misato lowers her head. She's then consumed with determination as she looks back up at the main screen and yells out in a commanding tone, "Shinji! You have to kill Nero no matter what!"

Having heard Misato's orders, Shinji instantly looks upward with a distraught expression as Unit 01 maintains its ground. "No way! I can't possibly do that!"

Misato responds with a serious tone through the intercom. "You have to, Shinji. Nero isn't who we thought he was. I know it's hard by itself that you have to fight your brother. And I know you weren't planning on taking his life." She then says with a stern tone, "But you have to if you want to protect all of us! Nero thinks the same way SEELE thinks! He won't hesitate in killing everyone! I can't think of any other way, Shinji!"

Nero glances towards the left side without any emotion showing as he heard what Misato said through the open channel of the intercom. Afterwards, Nero closes his eyes while being a bit amused and thinks, "Misato fell for it..." He then peers at Unit 01 with his posture forward while saying softly to himself, "Let's see if Shinji fell for it too."

Shinji hesitantly shakes his head with a pitiful look on his face. He then drops his head down and shouts out with his eyes shut, "I can't! I just can't kill my own, brother!"

Nero's quite surprised by what he just heard and then says under his breath while being a bit irritated, "How could he say that? He didn't even know I was his brother until about ten minutes ago. Not only that, after all the things I did to the others..." His eyes instantly widen as he briefly realizes something. Nero then smiles in a sinister manner while squinting his eyes a little and says to himself, "I got an idea to make him fight me more seriously, but it might push him over the edge."

With that said, Nero lightly sighs to himself while lowering his head with his eyes closed and then nonchalantly looks up at Unit 01. "But it looks like I have no choice if I want to see the full extent of Unit 01's capabilities." After saying that, Nero breaks the equilibrium by making Unit 03 quickly pull its arm back and thrust it forward. This results in Unit 03's A.T. Field expanding out towards Unit 01.

Unit 01 is hit by Unit 03's A.T. Field and it's pushed backwards quite a bit. As Unit 01 regains its ground, Shinji's a bit shook up by the sudden attack while his head is turned towards the left and his eyes are shut once again. He then quickly looks at Unit 03 with panic being displayed. "This is crazy! His A.T. Field by itself can keep me from laying a hand on him! He can even use it as a weapon with no effort at all!"

Shinji's immediately in shock due to him realizing that Unit 03 is now next to the downed Unit 05 and then yells out with worry taking over, "What are you doing, Nero?!"

Asuka looks towards Unit 03 with a surprised expression while thinking, "What the...?! When did he get there?! I didn't even see his Eva move!"

Nero smiles contentedly while making Unit 03 reach down for Unit 05 and grabs onto it by the face. Unit 03 then slowly lifts up Unit 05 off the ground and holds it up in the air while being held high up towards Unit 03's left with the black Eva's eyes locked on the helpless Eva.

Shinji yells out with horror adding to his concern, "Let Mari go, Nero!"

Nero nonchalantly stares at Unit 05 for a moment without losing his smiles. He then turns his attention towards the right to look at Unit 01 and says with an arrogant tone, "Make me." Unit 03 tightens its grip on Unit 05's face and causes it to start to crack.

Witnessing that enrages Shinji as he grit his teeth for a brief moment. He then pushes the controls forward to make Unit 01 sprint towards the black Eva and screams out, "I SAID, LET HER GO!"

Nero chuckles and then whispers to himself, "He finally fell for it."

Right when Unit 01 is about to come into contact with Nero's Eva, Unit 03's A.T. Field appears and blocks Unit 01's path. This results in Unit 01 crashing its head into the A.T. Field while intensity can be seen on Shinji's expression. "Let her go, let her go, let her go, let her go!"

Nero smirks while saying to himself, "Now let me push him a bit more to see if I can make him hate me. If I can't do that, everything I'm doing will be for nothing." Unit 03 suddenly pulls its arm back while still holding onto Unit 05 by the face and then throws Unit 05 right at Unit 01 with a lot of force.

Shinji gasps while pulling his head back as Unit 05 crashes into Unit 01 face first. This results in Unit 01 backing up a little bit while holding up Unit 05 with the only arm it has. Shinji leans forward with concern brimming as he's looking down at Unit 05. Then, Asuka's voice suddenly comes through the intercom as she yells out with an urgent tone, "Idiot, watch out!"

Due to Asuka's outburst, Shinji's eyes widen as he quickly looks up. Unfortunately, he's unable to see why Asuka yelled out due to him feeling a sudden, intense pain come from his stomach, which causes him to gag with his eyes closed and his head lowered. Nero had made Unit 03 step in with its left foot while thrusting its left hand into Unit 05's back.

As a result, the hand completely goes through Unit 05's body and even pierces the surface of Unit 01's stomach. In the meantime, Nero intently stares at Unit 01 with an amused smile. "You really are an idiot, Shinji. Just like Asuka said." Unit 03 then pulls out its arm from Unit 01's stomach as it maintains a grip on Unit 05 while pulling it away from Unit 01's grasp. After that, the black Eva holds Unit 05 up in the air in the same positioning as earlier.

Shinji tries to regain some of his composure while holding onto his stomach as he's looking at Unit 03 with a pain filled expression. Shinji's then shows surprise after seeing that Unit 03 has regained its hold on Unit 05. Right after that, he yells out in anger, "Stop, Nero! Why do you keep using Mari against me?!"

Nero casually tilts his head to the right while giving Unit 01 a skeptical look. "Isn't it obvious?" He then quickly narrows his eyes while leaning forward. "Because as long as her life is in danger, you'll actually try to fight me as an enemy, and not worry about the simple fact that I'm your brother. Let's be honest here, Shinji. If you didn't know that I was your brother, then you would have been fighting me without holding back from the beginning." Nero chuckles in a slightly sinister manner for a brief moment.

Shinji's eyes widen as he's quite upset by Nero's words and then lunges forward. "That's why?! Just because I'm not fighting you seriously, you're putting Mari's life in danger!"

Nero sharply nods in response. "Of course! I won't be satisfied with killing you, if you don't give me everything you got!"

Gendo shows a hint of disbelief after hearing what Nero had said. He then tucks his chin onto his chest without veering his focus away from the main screen and thinks with a vague look on his face, "Yui, forgive me... I have failed. Nero wants to kill his brother. The brother you desired for him to protect... And it's all my fault..."

Asuka's completely stunned by Nero's statement while her hands begin to irrationally shake and says in a low volume, "How could he say that? He really wants to kill his own brother?"

Shinji lowers his head as sorrow fills his face. Right after that, Shinji swiftly looks back at Unit 03 with pure determination. "If you want me to give you everything I got, then let go of Mari and I'll do just that!"

Nero keeps smiling while slanting his head to the left. "Deal." Nero looks at Unit 05 out of the corner of his eyes while straightening his head and mutters, "But just to be sure he'll actually try..." He then makes Unit 03 carelessly throw Unit 05 a couple of miles away to the left of his Eva.

Shinji's quickly engulfed by the anger that's been dwelling within him and then passionately screams out while making Unit 01 dash towards Unit 03, "NERO!"

As Unit 01's about to come into contact with Unit 03, the purple Eva thrusts its hand out towards the black Eva's head. Nero responds to this with content being displayed. "That's more like it." Unit 03 then elegantly steps in with its left foot again while standing sideways and pulls its head back to barely dodge Unit 01's strike. After successfully dodging, Unit 03 pulls its arm back behind it and swings it upward while aiming for Unit 01's chest.

Shinji freezes up while watching Unit 03's hand coming straight towards his Eva and thinks, "No! I can't dodge in time!"

Unit 03 pierces Unit 01's chest with so much force that it lifts Unit 01 right off the ground and sends it flying backwards pretty far into the air. As Unit 01 continues to fly in the air, Shinji screams out until Unit 01's back crashes onto the ground while making a pretty big impact. He then slowly regains some of his composure while breathing heavily as he tries to make Unit 01 sit upward with his head down.

Misato's voice comes through the intercom with an urgent tone, "Shinji, you have to get up! You're at your most vulnerable right now! Nero can attack at any moment!"

Shinji nods with his head still down and then strains his head to look up with an exhausted expression. "A-Alright!" He then turns his attention to the controls and pulls on them while trying to make Unit 01 get back on its feet.

Nero arrogantly smirks while tightening his grip on the controls. "Although I find it rude to kick someone when they're down..." Before completing that sentence, Nero makes Unit 03 dash towards Unit 01 while the purple Eva is on one knee. After that, Unit 03 stops right in front of Unit 01 while pulling its right leg back, and with no hesitation, kicks the purple beast right in the face. The kick sends Unit 01 backwards a little while falling back down to the ground.

At the same time, Shinji lightly screams in pain with his eyes shut as his back slams against the seat. Unit 03 then puts its leg back down while Nero looks directly at Unit 01 and says with a smart-ass tone, "But I'll make an exception for you, Shinji. You are my little brother, after all."

Having said that, Nero chuckles a little out of amusement while Shinji slowly opens his eyes to look up at Unit 03 with a hint of helplessness being displayed after being taken down by Nero so easily. Unit 03 then bends towards Unit 01 while quickly extending out its arm. It forcefully grabs Unit 01 by the neck while pinning it down to the ground as a small cloud of smoke is formed from the impact to the ground.

Unit 01 hurriedly grabs onto Unit 03's wrist and desperately tries to make the black Eva loosen its grip. As Unit 01 does that, Shinji's in a lot of pain due to the pressure that's being put on his neck from the synchronization, which is actually leaving a deep impression of a hand on it.

Some concern rapidly appears on Kaji's face as he's looking at the main screen and says with a composed tone, "This isn't good. Shinji's trapped with no possible way of getting out."

Touji looks at Kaji, who's towards Misato's right, while being quite upset. "Don't ya say that! He can still come up with somethin'!" He then looks back at the main screen while clenching his hands into fists. "We just gotta believe in him!"

Misato maintains her focus on the main screen with a serious look as she thinks, "I hope Touji's right." Her eyes then widen due to Misato remembering something and hurriedly turns to look at Ritsuko with worry, "Wait a minute! Unit 03's in contact with Unit 01! Is there any signs of contamination passing through to Unit 01?!"

Ritsuko shows some surprise on her person while watching Maya's screen. "There's actually no signs at all! But I don't understand! Why isn't Unit 01 being contaminated like the others?!"

Misato is equally surprised for a moment and then turns her attention back to the main screen with curiosity taking over while saying to herself in a low volume, "I would like to know that too."

With that, the focus returns to Unit 03 while it maintains its grip on Unit 01's neck as Nero says to himself with dullness in his eyes, "Unit 01 isn't being infected like the others. It must have something to do with mother."

Nero faintly smiles. "You sure are lucky to have her on your side." A hint of annoyance appears as Nero grits his teeth a little and then yells out with his body bent towards the entry plug's main screen, "But there's a limit to how lucky you can be!"

Unit 03 let go of Unit 01's neck and pulls its arm back behind itself. Shinji gasps for air since he can now breathe as he's leaning forward. As he does that, Shinji holds onto his neck with both hands as his head's lowered. He then makes an expression of realization and looks up at Unit 03. At that very moment, the black Eva thrusts its hand towards Unit 01's chest and pierces it with so much force that it completely goes through the purple Eva's body. After that, Unit 03 forcefully pulls its hand back out, and as a result, Shinji screams out in pain once again while slamming his back against the seat with his head tilted back.

Then, without warning, Unit 01 suddenly shuts down as the emergency alarm goes off in Central Dogma while on multiple screens that are displayed on the walls show the word "Alert". This causes everyone to worry while some even begin to panic a bit as Misato frantically looks at each screen that displays the warning signs with a lot of worry. "What's going on?!"

In response to Misato's question, Maya looks at Misato with a horrified expression and shouts out, "Unit 01's S2 Engine has been severely damaged! It's no longer functioning. That was the only source of power for it! There's no back-up power!"

Misato immediately turns to Maya with a look of despair while thinking, "Then that means...!"

After noticing that the lights from Unit 01's eyes are off, Nero has Unit 03 back away from Unit 01 quite a bit. He then says softly to himself without showing any emotion, "It looks like it's over." Nero gives out a short, fake laugh while being a little disappointed. "I guess you won't be saving the world again, huh? That's a shame."

Meanwhile, Shinji sits in the darkness of the entry plug with a spaced out expression. He's currently looking upward as he says with an exhausted tone, "He said... I promised him... Something... And I broke... That promise..." His hands begin to frantically shake while resting on his lap and then drops his head down with his body bent forward.

Right after that, Shinji shuts his eyes while being very upset. "But... He hurt them... He hurt Kensuke, Hikari... Rei... And Mari...! If I don't get back up, he'll hurt Asuka...!" He then yells out with a distraught tone, "And then he'll kill everyone!"

Shinji snaps his head up while the pupil of his eyes had turned bright red with immense anger being displayed and says in a menacing way, "I WON'T LET HIM!" Unit 01's eyes then light up again while being red as well. It looks directly at Unit 03 with an intense stare while everyone in Central Dogma is in shock as they watch the main screen display Unit 01's sudden reactivation.

Concern overtakes Nero's expression as he says to himself with his eyes locked on Unit 01, "What the hell is happening...?" Unit 01 then slowly gets to its feet while the parts on its body that were originally green are now glowing red like its eyes. Afterwards, Unit 01 looks upward while letting out a hideous shriek as the inside of its mouth reveals that its glowing red as well.

Having both witness Unit 01's change in appearance and heard its actions, Misato turns her attention towards Maya and says with a commanding tone, "What's going on with Unit 01?! We've never seen it like that before!"

Maya stares at her screen while being baffled by the readings that are displayed. "I don't know what's happening, but Unit 01's synchronization has far exceeded 400%!"

Misato makes a shocked expression while yelling out, "What?!" She then returns her focus to the main screen. "But this didn't happen the last time it went over 400%!"

After hearing Misato's outburst, Fuyutsuki watches the main screen while being a bit stunned. He then snaps out of it and swiftly looks at Gendo while whispering to him, "What's the meaning of this, Ikari?! What's exactly happening to Unit 01?!"

Gendo smiles while looking at the main screen and thinks, "Yui... This is Unit 01's truest form... Unit 01 is about to obtain what mankind has always dreamed of..." After thinking that, a serious expression takes over while Gendo gets into his usual pose and then says to himself in a low volume, "Unit 01 will become God."

Unit 01 looks directly at Unit 03 while quickly lifting up what remains of its left arm. Suddenly, an A.T. Field-like arm forms to replace Unit 01's missing arm and then sends out an A.T. Field blast right towards Unit 03. *Side Note: I really don't know what it's called so I made up the name, but if you saw Rebuild of Evangelion, you know what I'm talking about*

Nero's eyes widen out of surprise while the blast is too fast for him to react. Unit 03 gets hit with the blast on the center of its chest as the pure force of the blast sends the black Eva flying while doing a few involuntary back-flips with Nero yelling out in pain. Unit 03 is sent to an incredible distance away from where it was standing. It then collides onto the ground while continuously rolling on the ground until Nero regains control and makes it stop rolling. He currently has Unit 03 stand on its feet while Nero gazes at Unit 01 with an expression of disbelief. "What the hell was that?! I barely saw it coming!"

Asuka maintains a pretty far distance away from Unit 01 while looking at it with concern. "What's happening to Unit 01?! This never happened before!" Asuka then looks upward and yells out with a pleading tone, "Misato! What's going on with Shinji?!"

Then, Unit 01 suddenly has a halo appear right above its head right before it dashes towards Unit 03, and in an instant, appears right in front of Unit 03 while pointing its A.T. Field arm right at Unit 03's face. It slowly gets ready to release another A.T. Field Blast while Nero grits his teeth due to him being startled for a moment. He then quickly regains his composure and yells out with determination as Unit 03 deploys its A.T. Field, "Not this time!"

Unit 01 releases the A.T. Field Blast and effortlessly shatters Unit 03's A.T. Field. It then hits Unit 03 in the face, which sends it flying again, but this time Unit 03's back crashes into a mountain that wasn't too far away from it. This causes it not to have gone as far as the first blast had sent it.

Nero's now bent forward for a moment while tightly holding onto himself with his eyes closed as his head is lowered. He gags a little while feeling excruciating pain, and after that, Nero slowly gives Unit 01 a dirty look. "Damn... It...! Even though it's over 300%, the A.T. Field was so easily destroyed!"

After saying that, Nero grits his teeth while anger dwells deep inside his being. "I can't believe that Shinji's actually beating me!" He then suddenly realizes something, smiles while lowering his head again and mutters to himself, "He's actually beating me..."

Unit 01 puts its A.T. Field arm down, pulls its head back slightly and opens its mouth while letting out a low, growling sound. It then suddenly releases a beam out of its eyes while letting out a hideous roar. The beam goes straight towards the downed Unit 03 faster than the A.T Field Blast did. *I will be calling this the "Angel Beam" since a few of the angels were able to attack with this beam in NGE and in Rebuild. Plus, I really don't know what it's actually called. Sorry*

Nero's horrified by seeing that the Angel Beam is about to hit Unit 03 while being unable to do anything as the beam hits across the chest of Unit 03. Nero then gives out a horrific scream with his back planted against the seat as he's holding onto it with both hands. Nero's body torques upward while his head is thrown back as he's raving in pain. The lights in Unit 03's entry plug then go off and the word "Danger!" instantly appears throughout every screen in red.

Maya's overcome with concern as she sees the status on Unit 03 and yells out, "Unit 03's condition is in the red! The pilot's life is in danger!"

Misato looks at Maya with worry being displayed and then returns her attention to the main screen with a sad expression. "Even though that's what we needed to happen, it still hurts to see it."

Kaji gazes at Misato with a somber look for a moment. Afterwards, he looks back at the main screen while thinking, "It's going to hurt even more when she has to help the children get over it."

In the meantime, Unit 01 slouches forward and starts to slowly walk towards Unit 03 while making a steady, growling sound. Nero tries to regain his composure while lifting his head off his seat with his eyes shut. He then grabs onto the controls for leverage so that he can lean forward as his head is lowered.

Immediately after that, Nero opens his eyes while breathing heavily due to the strain that has been put onto his body. "That was something I didn't expect." Nero's eyes quickly widen with a bit of worry taking over since he can hear foot steps. He then looks up with a bit of desperation showing and sees that Unit 01's a few steps away from reaching him.

Asuka watches Unit 01 with an uncertainty and concern as the purple Eva is about to reach Unit 03. "What's Shinji going to do now...? There's no way Nero can possibly keep fighting after all of that."

Unit 01 finally reached Unit 03 and now stands over it with its body bent towards the downed Eva. At the same time, Unit 01 has its face really close to Unit 03's face as it stares at it menacingly while still growling. Unit 01 then pulls its head back and ferociously grabs onto Unit 03's face with its A.T. Field hand.

Asuka yells out with a look of despair surfacing as she's leaning forward, "What are you doing, Stupid Shinji?! Can't you see that he's done?! Nero's helpless!"

Misato's voice suddenly comes through the intercom as she says with both concern and firmness, "She's right, Shinji! Nero's no longer a threat! There's no need in taking his life!"

Hearing both Asuka and Misato's plea enrages Shinji as the entire inside of the entry plug is radiating a rush of multiple different colors that have cover Shinji's entire body while saying with an angry tone, "What do you mean, 'There's no need'?! He hurt Mari and the others! He wants to kill everyone! He even lied about being our friend and caring about us!" He then screams out with his eyes closed and head lifted up, "Even though he's my brother, he has to die for what he's done!"

Ritsuko quickly snaps her head to look at Misato with a distraught expression. "Colonel! You have to convince him to stop! Not for the reason of saving Nero, but if his synchronization keeps rising, not only will he lose himself; He could initiate 4th Impact all by himself!"

Misato looks at Ritsuko with fear being noted due to the thought of 4th Impact occurring. She then turns her attention back and yells out with a pleading tone, "Please, Shinji! Stop before it's too late! We don't want to lose you!"

Shinji ignores Misato's cry and makes Unit 01 lower its head to look directly at Unit 03's chest. Afterwards, Unit 01 lets out a hideous roar while its eyes are about to let out another Angel Beam. Nero sees what Unit 01 is aiming for with his back planted on the seat while feeling an immense amount of despair within him as he says to himself, "This... Is really... Going to suck..."

With that statement from Nero, Unit 01 lets out the Angel Beam and it completely goes through Unit 03's chest at almost point-blank range. As a result, the mountain that Unit 03 was lying on top of is obliterated while the beam spreads afterwards in a form of a giant cross throughout the ground with Unit 03 being in the center of it.

Asuka screams out in horror as she witnessed what just happened, "Nero!"

Nero gives out one final scream of anguish while looking upward as multiple streams of bubbles run across the entire entry plug with emergency alarms going off. His eyes then become vacant while losing the light in them and suddenly stops screaming. After that, Nero's eyes slowly shut as he passes out with his head dropping towards his left.

At the same time, Everyone in Central Dogma are all stunned by what they are seeing. Many of them don't dare to say a single word due to the tension that's present in the room as Maya's sadden by what she's seeing on her screen and then says with a somber tone, "Unit 03's pilot... His vital signs have already flat-lined..."

Misato makes a depressed expression while watching Unit 01 continue with its Angel Beam on Unit 03's vulnerable body. She then lowers her head with her eyes closed and thinks, "It's over..." Misato opens her eyes as her expression doesn't show any change.

Unit 01's Angel Beam slowly dissipates while Unit 01 closes its mouth a little bit. It then looks intently at Unit 03 as it slowly stands up straight while maintaining its hold on Unit 03's face. This results in Unit 03 being lifted off the ground while Unit 01 holds it up right in front of itself.

Having overheard the news of Nero dying through the intercom, Asuka can't help but to be overcome by sadness as her head is lowered. Her hair covers her face as Asuka tries to hold back her tears. A little bit after that, she slowly lifts up her head to look at Unit 01. She's immediately horrified by what she's seeing with her back against the seat while thinking, "Don't tell me, he isn't satisfied yet!" She then leans forward once again and yells out in panic, "Shinji! That's enough! He's already gone!"

Shinji ignores Asuka's cry with a serious look written on his face as he stares at Unit 03. He sees how damaged Unit 03 is, which includes a pretty large hole in the middle of Unit 03's chest that was created by the Angel Beam. After that, Shinji focuses on Unit 03's head that's still being held by Unit 01's A.T. Field hand. Unit 01 then suddenly release another A.T. Field Blast, which sends Unit 03 flying at an incredible distance, and the black Eva crashes its back onto the ground.

Asuka hurriedly looks towards where Unit 03 had crashed with horror and concern blending together. She then snaps her head towards Unit 01 with a lot of anger arising and yells out, "How could you do that?! He's already dead, Shinji!"

Without there being any response to Asuka's words, Unit 01 looks up towards the sky and gives out another hideous roar. As the purple Eva did that, it created an Anti-A.T. Field, which spreads out and makes a giant shock-wave go through out the entire area of Tokyo-03. Unit 02 is hit by some of the shock-wave and this results in it being pushed back a little.

Asuka promptly gives off a worried demeanor as she's looking towards Unit 01. "Mein Gott... What's happening to him...?" Asuka promptly lowers her head as grief and anger take over. She then yells out with her focus back on Unit 03 as she does her best not to cry, "Shinji! Come back to us!"

Shinji's voice suddenly comes through the intercom while responding to Asuka's call with a somber tone, "I can't, Asuka..."

Asuka's surprised to finally hear a response from Shinji while pulling her head back a little. She then leans forward while concern resurfaces as she says with a pleading tone, "Why not?! We're still here for you, Shinji!"

Shinji hears Asuka's words with his head down while a depressed look can be seen on his face as the entry plug continues to have different colors rush throughout it. "I killed my brother, Asuka... There's no way I can live with myself anymore..."

After saying that, Shinji briefly pauses to look up at Unit 02 with his eyes still red as he's trying to hold back his tears. "I don't deserve to live...! Not in a world that I killed my only brother!" He then closes his eyes as tears go down his face and screams out with his head tilted upward a little. "A brother that I selfishly forgot I had!"

Unit 01 releases a bigger shock-wave as if responding to Shinji's anguish, which causes the ground around Unit 01 to crack and break apart just like when a powerful earthquake occurs. After witnessing what transpired on the main screen, Misato passionately yells out with a stressful look, "No, Shinji!"

Then, without anyone noticing, Maya's screen that's displaying the status of Unit 03's pilot shows a mild spike up on the radar that shows the pilot's vital signs. With that, the scene focuses on the inside of Unit 03's entry plug while it's pitch black. It's then revealed that Nero has been flipped over onto his stomach while still lying on the seat due to the last time Unit 03 was sent flying by Unit 01. Nero starts to stir a little with his eyes closed as his left cheek is up against the seat. He then slowly opens his eyes while spacing out momentarily.

After a few seconds go by, Nero says to himself while feeling very weak from the pain he just endured, "Damn... That hurt..." He then places the palm of his hands on the seat and slowly pushes himself up to be on all fours. While doing that, Nero lets out multiple, dreadful coughs and even coughs out blood that splattered on top of his seat.

Once he stops coughing, Nero stares at the seat while saying with a nonchalant tone, "That's not good. I must have some internal bleeding." Nero then feels something wet on his chest and places his left hand on it while looking down. "I must be bleeding there too." He laughs softly, closes his eyes again and smiles lightly. "How ironic... It had to be my chest again..."

Meanwhile, Shinji's vacantly stares at the ceiling of Unit 01's entry plug while mumbling, "Mother... Why didn't you tell me that I had a brother...?" He then closes his eyes, grabs onto his head with both hands while gritting his teeth and yells out with a distraught tone, "Why didn't father tell me?! Why did I have to kill him?! WHY?!"

Nero turns his body around and sits down on the seat while resting his head on it. He then looks up at the ceiling with a dazed expression and says with a faint tone, "This has been my fourth near-death experience."

With that statement, Nero closes his eyes again and remembers each one of his confrontations with death. Starting with when he was homeless. He would have died from starvation if he had never met Keel. Second, was when he took a blast from an angel to protect Rivka. The third time was when Rivka died and Nero had lost his will to live, and now, this one makes four.

Once he finished his remembrance, Nero slowly allows a mild smile to appear on his face while gazing at the ceiling. "God must really like me for some reason."

Shinji suddenly lets out an intense scream while tilting his head back. Unit 01 then gives out another hideous roar as it continues to expand out its Anti-A.T. Field. This results in more of the ground breaking off around it. Nero hears Shinji screaming while maintaining his eyes locked onto the ceiling.

Right after that, Nero glances down to look in front of himself with a hint of curiosity taking over. "That sounds... Like Shinji..." He calmly reverts his attention back to the ceiling. "I don't know why he's screaming... But it's really starting to annoy me..." Nero then closes his eyes with a peaceful look forming.

Misato shouts out while looking at Central Dogma's personnel with panic brimming, "Everyone! At this moment, we have to think of evacuating and retrieving the fallen pilots! It isn't safe here!"

Ritsuko retorts to Misato's orders with a stern tone while looking down at the floor. "And what good would that do, Colonel?!"

Misato hurriedly turns to face Ritsuko with shock being displayed, and after that, becomes quite annoyed while yelling out, "It's better to evacuate everyone instead of waiting for the 4th Impact to happen!"

Ritsuko gives Misato an emotionless look out of the corner of her eyes. "It's too late, Misato. We're moments away from the 4th Impact. There's no chance of us escaping this."

Touji looks at Ritsuko with concern emitting from his person and then turns his attention towards Misato with a pleading demeanor. "Please say it ain't true, Misato! There hasta be a way to get outta here in time!"

Misato turns her attention to Touji with uncertainty and depression showing. She then faces the main screen with no change to her expression while thinking, "If what Ritsuko said is true... Then we'll need a miracle for us to come out of this alive..."

With those sad words from Misato, Nero randomly chuckles to himself for no apparent reason and then softly says with his head still resting on the seat, "It's funny..." Nero slowly opens his eyes to look at the ceiling once again. "I actually never thought I would lose to Shinji... Even though I wanted him to win. Luckily, he was fighting for something that meant more to him than the bullshit I was saying to piss him off."

Having said that, Nero smiles while grabbing onto the controls and pulls himself up to lean forward a little with his head now down. "All those things I said about wanting to kill everyone was a lie. I just said that to make him fight me with the intent of killing me. I wanted to be sure he could save the world again and protect everyone. My motivation to restore the world wasn't going to be enough."

For a brief moment, Nero pauses while letting out a sad sigh. After doing that, he says with a sorrowful tone, "I've actually been wishing for death since Rivka died. Someone like me who gives up on life would just cause the end of the world rather than save it."

Nero slowly lifts up his head to look in front of him as his eyes become dull. "It's good that Shinji beat me. If he couldn't... He could never possibly hope to defeat him..." He then lays his head back against the seat with his eyes closed while a content smile appears across his face. "But he did it... And now I can join you... Rivka..."

In the meantime, Asuka's watches Unit 01 with shock being displayed. She then yells out with an agitated tone, "Snap out of it, you idiot! You killed your brother to save us, but now you're going to do the same thing he was trying to do! If you don't stop...!"

Asuka drops her head down for a moment while biting her bottom lip out of anger. She then snaps her head up and passionately yells out with her eyes shut, "Then I'll have to kill you, and that'll mean that both of you died for no reason when you two should have lived to be happy!"

After barely hearing what Asuka said, Nero instantly opens his eyes while looking up at the ceiling with an expression of realization. "I can't die yet!" He grits his teeth while making himself lean forward again with determination brimming and then looks ahead of himself. "I can't die! I haven't kept my promise to Rivka! I promised, I would live to be happy and this entire time, I haven't done anything except when...!"

Nero briefly pauses with his eyes wide open as he sees a sudden image of Asuka go through his mind and then smiles with sincerity gleaming within his eyes. "I... I've felt happiness when I was..." He pauses again as multiple images of everyone he has met and have become friends with go through his mind as well. This includes Shinji and the others as Nero's eyes start to water. He then closes his eyes while lowering his head and chuckles. "I actually want to stay here..."

After that, Nero throws his head back and yells out with determination while looking upward, "I want to stay because I'm happy here!" He then hears a cracking sound come out of nowhere, which causes him to be concern while slowly looking in front of himself. Nero sees that the bottom part of the entry plug is being consumed by a crimson-like essence, which quickly covers everything around Nero while actually lighting the room quite a bit. He then frantically looks around while being a bit more concerned.

All of the sudden, Nero feels an intense pain come from his back. This causes him to bend forward while holding himself as he closed his eyes again and yells out, "Ahhhh! I remember this pain! It's the same pain that I felt when...!" Nero immediately opens his eyes as he hears children laughing faintly and instantly looks in front of himself. He sees multiple particles of light coming towards and pass him.

Nero sees countless light blue feathers in a form of a cross head towards him. This makes Nero pull his body back while placing his right hand behind himself as he mildly gasps. Right after that, a blue flame-like essence appears on his right cheek as it rapidly engulfs Nero's entire body and causes him to suddenly disintegrate.

Afterwards, Nero finds himself in a place that's completely surrounded by white noise as he's lying down while still wearing his plugsuit. At this moment, he's looking at the endless amount of whiteness with vacant eyes. *This would be considered as a Sea of Dirac, and amazingly enough, Nero's actually still alive while being in there*

Nero continues to look at the white noise that's above him while extending out his left hand towards the whiteness. He then says with a spaced out expression, "Where the hell am I?" Suddenly, a dark shadowy figure in a form of a person appears at the end of Nero's feet as it's facing towards Nero without having a face.

The shadowy figure replies to Nero's question with a menacing tone. "You're in my cage! This is the place that I have been trapped in for a long freaking time!"

Nero slowly lifts up his head a little to look at the shadowy figure with curious eyes. "You must be... Bardiel."

The shadowy figure chuckles with his head cocked to the left. "You sure are smart! A whole lot smarter than that idiot that piloted me before you!"

Nero casually sits up with a slight smile and then tilts his head to the left. "You're obviously talking about Touji." Curiosity reappears as Nero stops smiling while straightening his head. "By the way, why did you reject him? I know his synchronization wasn't that great..."

Bardiel promptly gags for a moment with his head down and then says with an arrogant tone, "That's an understatement!" He straightens his composure while veering his head away from Nero by turning it to the right and lightly shrugs. "He just wasn't the one to unleash my full potential!" Bardiel then turns his attention back to Nero and says with a hint of excitement, "But you...! You're perfect! With you, I can cause as much destruction as I please! And no one could possibly ever stop me!"

Nero smirks out of amusement, closes his eyes while lowering his head and then slowly gets on his feet. "You really are the angel of destruction. Though you're named after the angel of haze." He gazes at Bardiel while being at a small distance away from him and aks with a plain tone, "So, I guess you want me to give you control so that you can wreak havoc, huh?"

Bardiel laughs while throwing his head back. "Pretty much!" He then looks directly at Nero again. "Of course, all I care about is causing destruction! So it really doesn't matter if I have control as long as I get to destroy things, but I would prefer to have it!" Bardiel tilts his head to the right. "So, what's it going to be?! If you don't decide soon, you're stupid brother will cause 4th Impact pretty soon!"

Nero takes a step towards Bardiel with a confused look on his face. "What are you talking about? Why would he do something as stupid as that?"

Bardiel responds to Nero's question. "In a way, he didn't have a choice! To beat you, he had to make Unit 01 transcend to its truest form! Now, he's reaching God-like power and he can't stop!" He then slowly shakes his head a little while shrugging. "It's something that doesn't bother me too much as long as I can still destroy things!" Bardiel throws his head back while giving out a menacing laugh.

Sadness quickly resonates within Nero's eyes as he looks down while briefly being in deep thought. After that, Nero lifts his head to peer at Bardiel and says with a serious tone, "Fine. Let's do this."

Bardiel immediately looks at Nero and says with an excited tone, "Really?!" He then extends out his left arm as he offers Nero his left hand. "Then all you have to do is take my hand and you'll have access to my full potential! That is as long as I get to cause destruction!" Bardiel gives out another menacing laugh.

Nero nods and then lifts up his right hand while reaching for Bardiel's hand. Right as their hands are about to come into contact, he pulls his hand away a little while smiling at Bardiel. "On one condition."

Bardiel gets irritated for a moment and then sighs while dropping his head down. "Alright..." He then looks directly at Nero once again. "What's the condition?"

A serious look immediately takes over as Nero loses his smile while lifting up his right index finger. "What I say goes. I know very well that I could lose control of Unit 03 at any moment, and you can take over without any effort at all. So what I want is for you to give me your word that you won't do that or this agreement is off. Got it?"

Bardiel groans a little bit while turning his head to the left while thinking, "He doesn't have to worry about that. As long as he has that strong will of his, there's no way I can gain control!" He turns his attention back to Nero and nods while saying with an annoyed tone, "Alright, I got it!"

Nero smiles and says with a content tone, "Good." He then reaches out and grabs onto Bardiel's hand with his right.

At that exact moment, Unit 03's eyes light up while having turned into a glowing, dark blue color as it lets out an intimidating roar. As it does that, Unit 03 creates an Anti-A.T. Field that spreads out at an extraordinary distance while also releasing a huge shock-wave that tears through the ground. This grabs the attention of everyone in Central Dogma, Asuka and even Shinji.

Misato yells out while watching the main screen with horror, "What's going on now?!"

Ritsuko responds while looking at Maya's screen with surprise brimming, "Unit 03 has reactivated! The vitals of the pilot have started up again!" She then gasps while pulling her head back a little. "I can't believe this, the synchronization has gone well over 400%!"

Misato snaps her head towards Ritsuko while being shocked by what she just heard. "Not him too!"

Meanwhile, Unit 03 gets up on its feet as the stripes on its body have now change from white to glowing silver while a giant silver cross appears on its back. At the same time, an aora-like silver essence is flowing from the black beast's chest where the hole's located. Unit 03 then tilts its head back and lets out another intimidating roar.

Shinji witnesses the revival of Unit 03 with complete disbelief while saying to himself, "He's alive?! There's no way!"

Nero reappears in the entry plug while it had reverted back to its original appearance. He's currently standing on his seat as the crosses on his plugsuit, which are the ones that are on the plugsuit's hands and chest, are shinning the color silver. The cross-shaped mark that's on Nero's back is also shinning the color silver through the plugsuit. Nero then lightly smiles while staring at Unit 01 as his eyes are revealed to be shinning dark blue just like Unit 03. "Better brace yourself, Shinji."

Having said that, Nero cocks his head a bit to the right. "I'm going to show you how to properly use the full potential of an Eva." He then chuckles a little. "After all, the older brother's role is to show their little brother how things are done."

Asuka watches with a dumbfounded expression as she mutters, "Nero's... Still..." She then smiles while being overcome with joy and yells out, "He's still alive!"

Shinji glares at Unit 03 while being very upset as he says underneath his breath, "Why is he still alive...? It was hard enough thinking he was already dead, but now..." He then shouts with a distraught tone, "Now I have to try to kill him again! If I don't, he'll kill everyone!" Shinji screams out in rage as he makes Unit 01 dash towards Unit 03. The purple Eva quickly appears right in front of Unit 03 while pointing its A.T. Field arm at it and lets out an A.T. Field Blast.

In response, Unit 03's A.T. Field suddenly appears at a large extent that makes it look like it's a giant, see-through, golden wall and completely blocks the A.T. Field Blast while creating a loud impact. This results in a giant shock-wave being made that creates a large crater underneath the Evas' feet. Shinji's surprised by what has just transpired while yelling out, "But how?! His A.T. Field couldn't hold up last time!"

Nero calmly smiles while briefly cracking his neck by making his head tilt towards the left. "I would say, we're about even now, but... I'm not going to say that for a simple reason." Unit 03 then has a silver A.T. Field arm appear to take the place of its missing right arm. As it appears, two long silver A.T. Field-like wings extend out from the arm while each one being on opposite sides of the wrist.

Seeing this causes Misato to yell out from disbelief, "Wings?! What the hell?!"

Nero maintains his smile while glancing down at his right wrist due to it developing a simulation of the A.T. Field wings to display what Unit 03 has just obtained. Having seen that, Nero says to himself while being quite impressed, "Cool." He then casually looks up at Unit 01 while slowly lifting his right arm, which Unit 03 imitates, and points the A.T. Field arm at Unit 01.

Shinji's eyes widen due to him seeing that Unit 03's aiming at him and then rage fills his expression as Unit 01 expands its A.T. Field. "If you can block my attack, then I can definitely block yours!"

Nero replies to Shinji's statement with a confident tone. "We'll see about that."

With that said, blue electricity is conducted throughout the entire A.T. Field arm and wings. A silver/blue Angel Beam is then suddenly sent right towards Unit 01. The Angel Beam effortlessly breaks through Unit 01's A.T. Field while piercing the purple Eva's left eye as the force of the beam sends Unit 01 backwards a bit. While that happened, Shinji screams out in pain with his head thrown upward, his right eye closed and he's holding onto his left eye with one hand over the other.

Asuka and everyone in Central Dogma are in shock due to what they have just witnessed. Shinji then opens his right eye while looking in front of himself with a demented expression. As Shinji does this, he's still holding onto his left eye with both hands and then yells out, "You bastard!" He instantly becomes surprised as he sees that Unit 03 is no longer in front of him and then frantically looks around. "Where did he go?!"

After a few seconds of searching, Shinji notices that he's being overshadowed by something above him. He then quickly puts his hands down while still having his left eye closed and peers up towards the sky. Shinji gasps out of being scared as he sees that Unit 03 is right above him while facing down towards Unit 01. The black Eva makes a light growling sound as it's ready to send out another Angel Beam at Unit 01 from above.

Shinji's horrified by the black Eva's actions as he tries to make Unit 01 jump backwards to dodge. This amuses Nero as he chuckles while looking at Unit 01. "Not fast enough, little brother." Unit 03 then sends out the Angel Beam and it quickly strikes Unit 01's right shoulder while causing a small explosion to erupt from it.

Unit 01 pulls back as Shinji's feeling excruciating pain from his shoulder while his head is lowered. He then grabs onto his shoulder and looks in front of himself with his right eye. At the moment Shinji does that, Unit 03 lands on the ground while causing the ground to break a little bit as Unit 03 briefly faces towards the left. Unit 03 then turns to face Unit 01 while lifting up its A.T. Field Arm towards Unit 01 again and gets ready to fire off another Angel Beam.

Shinji radiates with determination and fierceness as he finally opens his left injured eye. This resulted in a tear of blood going down his face from his injured eye as Shinji yells out with anger, "I'm not done yet, Nero!" Unit 01 then lets out a hideous roar and releases an Angel Beam through out its eyes once again.

Unit 03 responds by shooting out its Angel Beam and both beams instantly collide into each other while creating an immense impact. Then, a pretty large explosion is created while Unit 01 is pushed back a little bit due to being hit by the shock-wave of the explosion. Unit 03 on the other-hand isn't fazed by the shock-wave due to its A.T. Field shielding it. Curiosity then appears on Nero's person as he tilts his head slightly to the right. "Well isn't that interesting. We tied." Determination and intensity overtakes him. "That won't last though."

With that said, Unit 03 put its A.T. Field arm up in the air, and suddenly, the A.T. Field wings start to slowly dissipate. At the same time, silver energy particles start to gather on the palm of Unit 03's A.T. Field hand. Shinji watches what Unit 03's doing while being very concerned. "W-What's going on?!"

Ritsuko watches the main screen with a baffled look. "He couldn't be...! It's impossible!"

Misato looks at Ritsuko with a worried expression and then shouts with a stern tone, "Spit it out! What's happening that got you like that?!"

Ritsuko responds to Misato's question with her focus still on the main screen. "It seems like he's making Unit 03 condense its A.T. Field into a single point and plans on using it as a weapon!" She then turns to Misato with a stressful look arising . "But there's no telling how much damage there will be!"

Misato's momentarily shocked by what Ritsuko told her and then turns her attention back to the main screen. "Someone has to stop him!" She then makes her image appear on Asuka's upper-front screen and says with a commanding tone, "Asuka!"

Asuka looks at Misato with a bit of concern showing. "What is it, Misato?!"

Misato is about to say something, but her image suddenly gets cut off. After that, Nero appears on the upper-front screen with his right arm up in the air while it can be seen that the simulation of the A.T. Field wings are disappearing as well. Due to Nero's appearance, Asuka's very surprised while yelling out, "Nero?!"

Nero smiles at her with sincerity gleaming within his eyes. "Asuka... Don't get in the way. Just get as far away from here as possible. It's not safe for you to be here, alright?"

Asuka's in disbelief for a moment and then becomes quite upset while yelling out, "Why are you warning me?! I thought you wanted to kill all of us!"

Nero closes his eyes while chuckling with his head lowered a little. "You're smarter than that, Asuka." Nero looks at her with a smile. "If I really wanted to kill you guys, don't you think I would have already done it? I had plenty of chances to do that."

Asuka's stunned by Nero's statement while thinking, "What does he mean by that?! Could it be that he...?!"

Nero interrupts Asuka's thought with a stern look being displayed. "Now get out of here! The last thing I would want is for you to get hurt!"

Asuka blushes a little while being a bit surprised. Right after that, she quickly regains her composure and nods with seriousness being displayed. "Alright. I'll trust you." Unit 02 then turns around and starts to run to a safe distance.

Nero smirks while watching Unit 02 leave and then says softly to himself, "And thank you, Asuka. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have remembered the promise I made to Rivka. I was actually stupid enough to forget, and for that, we're even now." He then chuckles a little as he turns his attention back to Unit 01 while the A.T. Field wings have disappeared and a small ball of Unit 03's condense A.T. Field is formed on the palm of its hand. *Side Note: I will name it, the A.T. Sphere!*

Shinji sees the A.T. Sphere and becomes a bit worried. He then shakes of his concern and yells out with determination, "I don't know what that is, but I'm not letting you use it!" Shinji makes Unit 01 quickly let out another Angel Beam towards Unit 03.

Nero keeps smiling as he says with a mild amount of arrogance, "Unfortunately for you, there's nothing you can do to stop me." Unit 03 pulls its A.T. Field arm back a bit, and after doing that, it throws the A.T. Sphere right at Unit 01's Angel Beam. They both then collide while creating an intense impact and are currently at a stand-off.

Misato's eyes widen out of surprise. "They're evenly matched again!"

Kaji says with a somber tone while looking at the main screen, "Not for long."

Due to Kaji's comment, Misato glances at him with a confused look while thinking, "What?" Afterwards, she turns her attention back to the main screen with seriousness returning.

Nero's right arm is extended out in front of himself as he's still smiling. He then puts his right thumb and middle finger together and says with a cheerful tone, "Aside from almost dying, I had a lot of fun. But it's time to say goodbye, Shinji." Nero promptly snaps his fingers, and suddenly, the small A.T. Sphere rapidly increases in size while spinning in a forward rotation. It then quickly grows to an immense stature while consuming Unit 01's Angel Beam.

A horrified expression instantly takes over as Shinji watches the A.T. Sphere expanding towards him. "N-No way!" Unit 01's then hit by the continuously growing A.T. Sphere, and after that, the A.T. Sphere explodes in the form of a giant silver cross. This seemingly annihilates everything in the area that it comes into contact with, which adds up to about a five-mile radius.

Unit 03 stands without moving at all as the explosion was so large that it expands towards Unit 03 and then is completely consumed by the silver light of the explosion. As this happens, Nero's sincerely smiling as the explosion's silver light is casting over him while thinking, "Goodbye for now... Everyone..."

Asuka watches the giant silver, cross-shaped explosion while spacing out a little and then mumbles, "Nero... Shinji..."

Meanwhile, everyone in Central Dogma are all left speechless while being blinded by the explosion. They even felt some of the shock-wave from the explosion. The explosion then subsides after a little time passes. After that, everyone is shocked to see that not only Unit 01 survived, though heavily damaged and reverting back to its normal form, that Unit 03 is nowhere to be seen. Also, the buildings that weren't retracted in the city are completely destroyed and now the area looks similar to a wasteland. Luckily, the majority of Tokyo-03's buildings were retracted.

Misato looks towards Maya with worry being displayed, "What's the status on Shinji?!"

Maya frantically types while looking at her screen. She then smiles and turns to the right to look at Misato. "He's still alive!"

Misato sighs out of relief as she closes her eyes with her head lowered for a moment. She then lifts up her head while making a serious expression and shouts out with a commanding tone towards Central Dogma's personnel, "Quick! Send out the recovery team! The pilots' safety is our top priority!" Misato turns her attention specifically towards Hyuga. "Any sign of Unit 03?!"

In response, Hyuga turns around to look at Misato with a sad look on his face as he slowly shakes his head. After seeing that, Misato grits her teeth out of anger while thinking, "Damn...! He got away after causing so much damage!" She then remembers something and quickly turns her attention towards Gendo while being very upset. After doing that, Misato points at him with her left hand and says with a firm tone, "You have a lot more explaining to do! And you better give me and the children the answers we deserve!"

Gendo gives Misato an emotionless look without responding for a moment. Afterwards, Gendo nods at her and says with a stern tone, "You are correct. It's about time I told you and them the truth." He then thinks to himself while turning his attention to the main screen, "If Nero's going to be the enemy, it's best for Shinji to understand what exactly Nero's capable of. He must also know the reason why they have been separated for such a long time."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Longest episode! That's right! As some of you could tell, this was my longest episode and for obvious reasons. I feel like I really outdid myself, although I did take something from Rebuild of Evangelion, but still... Thank you all for reading and look forward to the next episode. I'm not too sure what I will come up with for the next episode, but I'll try to make it entertaining.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	18. Episode 18

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

With the conclusion of the Nero vs. Shinji battle, this episode will involve major explanation of Nero's past; It will reveal some details pertaining to SEELE's plan, and other things that I don't feel like giving away at the moment. So enjoy the episode, everyone.

Episode 18: What It Means To Be Wanted

After the disappearance of Unit 03 and Nero, NERV's recovery team had recovered the injured children. All the children except Asuka are currently unconscious and the ones that were infected by Bardiel's contamination are being treated. As a result, Misato decided to wait until every one of them regain consciousness so that she and them can confront Gendo about Nero. As the injured children recover, Touji has made the decision to stay in the clinic room that Hikari has been placed after being rid of the contamination, which she has that room all to herself. Everyday, he sits by her bed and waits for her to regain consciousness.

In Asuka's case, she would go and check on everyone in general. Asuka would start off with Hikari's room, then go to the room that both Rei and Kensuke are kept in together, and finally, she would spend a lot of time in Shinji's room since she still cares deeply about him. She would also be checking on Mari while being in that room since Mari was placed in the same room with Shinji, though obviously in a separate bed that's divided by a white, curtain.

The day ends in Japan while in a certain part of the world, it's day time and the scene's main focus is on a room that the twelve Monoliths of SEELE are in. They surround Nero as their conversation with him is about to commence. Nero's wearing a white, short-sleeved, button shirt while wearing black jeans. It can be noted that there are multiple bruises on his face and on notable parts of his body. This is from his confrontation with Lucas and Shinji.

Keel *SEELE # 1* says with a stern tone while being right in front of Nero, "It's good to have you back, Nero. Did you enjoy the time you spent with your father and brother?"

A hint of irritation is displayed on Nero's expression as he rolls his eyes and then focuses his attention on Keel's Monolith. "I can tell you're being sarcastic, so quit it." He gets very serious while asking, "Can we just get on with the main subject?"

SEELE # 4 retorts with an irritated tone. "Oh really?! What's wrong, Nero?! Is there some place you have to be?!"

Nero turns his eyes towards the upper right to look at SEELE # 4 with a cold stare. "I'm not going to justify that with an answer." He then turns his attention back towards Keel's Monolith. "By the way, why was it necessary for me to give you my confirmation so soon?" He tilts his head slightly to the left while saying, "I thought I had unlimited time to think about when to give out the confirmation."

Keel simply responds. "You did, but some of the members were getting impatient. I thought it would be best to move forward with our plan."

SEELE # 9 shouts out of frustration due to Keel's statement. "It wasn't only that! The real reason was that we believed waiting for some snot-nose brat's confirmation was pointless! I personally don't care if you are supposed to be the smartest person in the world! You're still just a kid, and a pain in the ass!"

SEELE # 2 calmly responds to what SEELE # 9 just said. "Calm down. You're getting too worked up for nothing." He then says to Nero, "Listen, Akaya..."

Nero quickly cuts SEELE # 2 off to correct him with his head lowered to look at the floor. "Ikari. If you'll refer me by a last name, it will be my real one. There's no need in keeping my identity a secret anymore."

SEELE # 6 says with a curious tone towards Nero, "Is that because you told NERV about who you are? But I had assumed that you didn't like that name anyway."

Nero glances at SEELE # 6, who's Monolith is direct towards Nero's right, with a faint smile. "I gave up my name so that I could live a separate life without being connected with my father and brother, but my life now is connected with them so I see no need in the last name 'Akaya' anymore. I'm Nero Ikari. It's as simple as that."

SEELE # 3 chuckles a little and then says with a content tone, "So even Nero Aka-, I mean Ikari has attachments to his family. I had originally thought you hated them, but I guess I was wrong."

Nero gazes at SEELE # 3, who's Monolith is towards the right of SEELE # 4's Monolith, while maintaining his smile. "No, you weren't. You were actually right, but I figured that hatred is a terrible source of strength. Just like rage and anything that's negative. To live in this world with negativity is the primary factor that caused the Lilin to continuously make mistakes throughout all the years they have existed. There's no point for me to follow that path like they did."

Keel thinks to himself while being a bit concerned, "He referred mankind as Lilin while leaving himself out of that category. It seems he still shows some disdain for the world." He then loses his concern while thinking in an optimistic way, "This assures me that he can be trusted, but I have to be completely sure." With the completion of that thought, Keel says to Nero, "Answer me something and then we will get to the main topic."

Nero turns his attention to Keel's Monolith with a hint of curiosity. "Go ahead. Ask me anything you wish to know."

Keel calmly states, "Why didn't you finish NERV off? You had already defeated all their Evas except Unit 02, but with the capabilities of the awakened Bardiel, you would have easily taken it down even if its pilot had used the Beast Mode."

SEELE # 8 adds in with a firm tone, "He's right! It did strike me pretty odd that you had defeated your brother, but you chose not to continue your attack and bring us Unit 01 with its pilot! Explain that to us!"

Nero looks down at the floor with a plain expression. "Alright. This is actually a very easy question you asked me, Keel." Having said that, Nero lifts his head up and looks directly at Keel's Monolith with no emotion being displayed. "After using Unit 03's full potential and after condensing Unit 03's A.T. Field into that ball, I was on the verge of losing my ego."

SEELE # 12 asks with a confused tone, "Ego? Do you mean your ego border?"

Nero quickly glances at SEELE # 12, who's towards the right of Keel's Monolith, while nodding and then turns his attention back to Keel. "There was no possible way that I could retrieve Unit 01 and Shinji in the condition I was in. I was lucky that the cargo plan you had the Dummy Plug Evas transported in was near by or I would have been screwed." He then smirks due to finding the last word he said being funny.

Keel contemplates for a brief moment while responding. "Hmmm. I'll accept it. Anyway, we did decide on moving ahead of schedule, but we don't need to be pushing it that much. With the damage that NERV's Evas have received, they're only line of defense is Unit 02. If we launch phase one of our main plan within the next few days, then we can completely eliminate NERV without any trouble."

Nero's consumed with sadness as he looks away from Keel's Monolith by turning his head to the lower left and thinks, "That won't be good for Shinji and the others I injured. I highly doubt they're Evas will be repaired by then."

SEELE # 11 politely interrupts Nero's thought process and says with a curious tone, "Something on your mind, Nero?"

Nero snaps out of his train of thought while calmly turning his body to the left to face SEELE # 11. "Not really." After saying that, Nero turns his head to the right to look at Keel's Monolith, which is now towards Nero's right. "So, is there anything else that needs to be discussed?"

Keel responds with no real emotion. "No. As I stated, we will launch the next stage of our plan in a few days. We might even wait for Unit 03 to be repaired before initiating that. It shouldn't take our tech team no more than a week considering Unit 03 regenerated a good amount of its damage when you unleashed its true potential."

Nero nods while still focused on Keel. He then turns his body towards the exit, which is behind SEELE # 7's Monolith, and starts to walk towards it. "In that case, I'll be going now." Having said that, Nero suddenly stops right in front of the exit and says while facing away from SEELE, "Oh yeah... This is out of curiosity, but why did you send Lucas to fight me with the intention of killing me? Or even die trying?"

Keel calmly answers. "I had told Lucas to avoid fighting you, and you can even confirm that with Evan. But... I had a feeling that you two facing off was inevitable. That's why I gave him that message to give you."

Nero turns his head slightly towards the right to look at Keel's Monolith out of the corner of his eyes. "What about the fact that Lucas said I would only receive the message if I defeated him? He even said that the only way I would beat him is if I killed him, and if I didn't, he would kill me."

SEELE # 10 gives out a short laugh while his Monolith is to the right of SEELE # 11 and then says with an arrogant tone, "Why are you asking such stupid questions?! I thought you were the smartest person in the world?! It's obvious that we wanted you to get rid of Lucas! He was the weakest out of all our pilots! Keeping him around would have just caused us unnecessary problems!" With that said, he starts to laugh in a maniacal way.

SEELE # 5 calmly joins into the conversation while being to the left of SEELE # 4. "And to add, we never gave Lucas the order to kill you. His own personal grudge was what motivated him to want to kill you."

Nero glances at all of the SEELE members with coldness in his eyes. He then turns his attention back towards the exit and says with a somber tone, "Is that true, Keel?"

Keel stays quiet for a moment and then responds with a cold tone. "Yes. You most likely already knew when you first realized that it was Lucas in that Dummy Plug Eva. We don't need any dead-weight like Lucas Valley holding us back from achieving our goal."

Nero closes his eyes while lowering his head a little and smiles slightly. "That's all I needed to know." He then slowly opens his eyes while looking up at the exit's door as it automatically opens up. After it opens, Nero walks out of the room without saying another word.

After seeing the door shut behind Nero, SEELE # 7 says with a worried tone while his Monolith is to the right of SEELE # 8, "Keel... Do you think he believed us?"

Keel replies with a serious tone. "I'm not too sure. I always had a hard time reading what Nero is thinking. Either way, he can't find out that I gave Lucas the order to kill him if they were to face off. Even though I had already expected them facing each other since Lucas always had the desire to defeat Nero."

SEELE # 6 asks with a curious tone while his Monolith is directly across Keel's, "Why did you give Lucas that order? I thought Nero was our ace in the hole."

Keel calmly states, "He is indeed our ace, but after his actions at the 2nd Branch, I had lost a lot of faith in him. That's why I had to send Lucas to fight him and give him that message. I needed to know if he was still to be trusted, and betray NERV just like I wanted him to betray the 2nd Branch."

SEELE # 3 says with a bit of skepticism in his voice, "If I'm correct, Lucas wasn't too excited about that order you gave him." He then chuckles a little. "Kill Nero or die trying. If Lucas were to survive, but not kill Nero, he would die one way or the other."

SEELE # 11 says with a stern tone, "You mean we would have had him killed, right? If he was afraid of dying, he could have joined NERV. That was his perfect opportunity to do such a thing."

Keel plainly adds in. "Indeed, but his personal feelings for someone kept him from joining NERV. As a result, he couldn't refuse my command and fought Nero with everything he had."

SEELE # 4 says with arrogance, "That's another reason why it was good that Nero killed him. His motivations for piloting were childish. He wasn't looking at the bigger picture. All he cared about was gaining the approval of others and to be recognized by his fellow pilots as someone important. We pretty much sent him to die. There was no way Nero would ever lose to him." He then gives out an evil laugh.

Keel says with a firm tone, "That's enough. It's time to focus on our next step. We will indeed launch our next attack sometime soon. Now that I'm entirely sure that Nero's on our side, there's nothing else to worry about."

SEELE # 7 asks with a concerned tone, "What about Unit 06 and its pilot? Will we be using them for our next attack?"

Keel responds with no real emotion. "I don't believe Unit 06 and its pilot will be needed for that. They're supposed to go out on a test run in a week. Also, there's something in specific that he'll be retrieving during that test-run and that's more important. But I'll ask the pilot if he wants to get involved after finishing his mission."

With that said, the focus changes to Nero, who's walking down a long hallway that's within the facility that SEELE and he are currently located in.

As he continues his way down the hall, Nero's hands are placed on top of his head with his eyes locked onto the ceiling as he thinks to himself while spacing out quite a bit, "Keel shouldn't underestimate me when he knows how smart I am. He should know better. I can always figure out when he's lying to me." He then smirks while lowering his head to look at the floor and thinks, "It's actually kind of sad that he can't tell when I'm lying or keeping something from him."

With Nero's thought completed, a boy suddenly appears behind him while contentedly saying in Japanese, "Look who I found."

Nero looks up in front of him with confusion brimming as he says under his breath, "Japanese?" He then slowly puts his hands down while turning his head to the left to look behind him. After doing that, he's instantly shows surprise on his face while saying, "Evan?!"

Evan smiles at Nero while chuckling a little due to the reaction he just received. It can clearly be seen that Evan's wearing a brown t-shirt with the word "Demon" on the front part while being the color dark green and has blue jeans on. Evan then says with an amused tone while having his arms folded, "Surprised to see me, huh?"

Nero turns around to face Evan while suddenly smiling with his head cocked to the right. "I'm surprised to hear you speak Japanese. I remember that you, Lucas, Vanessa and Casey didn't know much Japanese."

Evan laughs while closing his eyes with his head tilted back. He then looks directly at Nero again while still smiling. "Well... Lucas being a retard never tried to learn Japanese, but Me, Vanessa and Casey on the other hand thought it would be beneficial to know Japanese. I do prefer talking in English though, but I'll be really nice to talk in Japanese for your benefit."

Nero raises his right eyebrow with curiosity arising as he straightened his head's posture. "Is that so? Well thanks, I guess." He faintly smiles as he takes a few steps towards Evan. "So, how have you been?"

Evan looks away from Nero while having a smug expression. "I'm just fantastic!" He then looks back at Nero without changing his expression. "I'm the pilot of Unit 07. That's the Eva that retard was going to pilot, but since he was such a pain in the ass, SEELE decided it to be best that I would pilot it."

Nero shows no emotion while gazing up at the ceiling. "Please stop calling him that. Show him some respect."

Evan's surprised by what Nero said while shouting out, "Really?! What's with the sudden defense?! You kill the guy and now you feel bad?!" He smiles while leaning towards Nero with his right hand on his waist while the other is lowered and says with an arrogant tone, "I didn't expect that from you."

Nero's consumed with annoyance while turning his attention back to Evan and says with a somber tone, "What's that suppose to mean?"

Evan chuckles and responds with arrogance increasing. "Well think about it! You're Chairmen Keel's main dog! He says jump and you do it with no hesitation or regret! You knew that he wanted you to kill Lucas because he's worthless!"

Nero narrows his eyes while giving Evan a look of disdain. "What happened to you, Evan? You were never like that. The worst thing that ever came out of your mouth was you calling Lucas a retard everyday. But this time you're going too far with what you're saying."

Evan closes his eyes, turns his head away from Nero and shrugs his shoulders with a sarcastic smile. "I guess you don't know me very well like you thought you did." He then looks at Nero out of the corner of his eyes. "This is who I truly am. If you don't like it, then tough luck." Evan laughs a little while turning his head to Nero again.

Nero responds with a cold look while tilting his head slightly towards the left. "I guess so. Just answer me something."

Curiosity quickly appears on Evan's face as he maintains his smile. "Go for it."

Nero straightens his head while leaning a bit forward as he puts both hands in his pockets. "What do you expect to gain from working for SEELE? You never answered that question when I first asked you. Lucas answered that he'll finally have recognition from people, Vanessa and Casey do it because they have been brainwashed by SEELE into thinking that there's no hope for this world and that they're the only ones who can change it." Nero then pauses briefly while fixing his posture and asks, "What is it that you want out of this?"

Evan looks down at the floor for a moment and then slowly starts to laugh in a crazy-like manner with his head thrown backwards while his eyes are shut. After doing that for several seconds, he slowly stops laughing and looks directly at Nero with a cynical smile as he shouts out with a maniacal tone, "Isn't it obvious?!" He then lifts up his hands in front of him and does a crazed-like gesture with his fingers. "I want to be the most powerful person in the world!"

Nero's quite surprised by Evan's answer with his eyes wide open. He then quickly composes himself while giving Evan a cold look. "Really...? How do you expect to gain that?"

Evan puts his arms down while he laughs a little bit again. After doing that, he says with another maniacal tone, "Simple! I'll prove to SEELE that I'm much better than you and that stupid brother of yours! Then they will realize that I'm the only person who can pilot the True Evangelion and release its full potential! With it under my control, no one can ever stop me!"

Nero gives Evan a serious glare while asking, "How do you know about the True Evangelion?" He then slowly shakes his head while closing his eyes with his head lowered a little. "You know what, never mind. It doesn't matter." Nero looks up at Evan with an emotionless expression. "What you desire is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard." Having said that, Nero turns around and starts walking away from Evan.

Evan's in shock due to what Nero had just said. He then yells out while being infuriated, "Look who's talking! The thing that you want is to return the world back to the way it was! The only way to do that is to eliminate mankind! You aren't better than me! You're just as bad! You're willing to kill your own brother for that stupid desire!"

Nero suddenly stops walking while looking in front of him and retorts to Evan's words with an emotionless tone, "You really disappoint me, Evan." He then turns his head to the right to look at Evan out of the corner of his eyes with a faint smile. "By the way, even though Lucas never beat you in fencing or in synchronization scores, he's actually better than you. If you and I were to ever fight, you would never be able to hurt me like Lucas did." Nero turns his attention back in front of him and starts walking again.

Evan grits his teeth while being consumed with rage and thinks, "What the hell is he talking about?! I'm a hell lot better than that retard! And I know I'm better than him!"

With Evan's final thought, the main focus is still on Nero as he continues to walk around in the facility. He isn't too familiar with it since he hasn't been there for a while. Nero finally finds himself in a cafeteria as he's surprised when he sees that Vanessa and Casey are both in there. They're sitting on a long cafeteria table as they're eating lunch together. Casey's sitting on the left side of the table while Vanessa's on the right side of the table. Casey's wearing a pink dress that's just like the same dress Asuka wore when she first joined Tokyo-03 on the German Naval ship and Vanessa's wearing a black blouse that really shows off the upper part of her chest as she's wearing yellow short shorts.

Nero smiles with his hands in his pockets and looks at them while thinking, "It seems like they haven't noticed me yet." He then says with a happy tone, "Guess who's back."

In reaction to what Nero said, Casey and Vanessa are overcome with surprise. They both immediately look at each other while dropping their sandwiches at the same time. They then quickly look towards Nero, which is towards Casey's right and Vanessa's left. When they see that its him, both yell out in unison, "Nero!"

Having seen their reaction, Nero chuckles while being very content. Casey then smiles while being filled with happiness as her heart begins to race. Afterwards, she gets up on top of the cafeteria's bench and runs towards Nero while extending out her arms towards him. Once she reaches the edge of the bench, Casey jumps off it to reach him. Nero's startled while seeing Casey head towards him in mid-air. Casey then wraps her arms around Nero's neck while her momentum makes her and Nero spin around as she's still in the air. At the same time, she laughs while saying with pure joy in her voice, "I missed you so much!"

Nero manages to stop spinning while holding onto Casey by her waist with both hands. After doing that, he makes her stand on the floor while having her look at him with sincerity brimming from his face. "I missed you too." A hint of nervousness then appears on Nero's expression as he says with his eyes closed. "But next time, warn me before you jump on me like that." After saying that, he lightly laughs and looks at Casey again.

Casey excitedly smiles and nods at Nero. She then brings her head against his chest while joyfully hugging him. "I'm just so happy that you're back!"

Nero nods in agreement as he maintains his focus on Casey while his eyes dull a little. "I know. I'm very happy to see that you're doing well."

Meanwhile, Vanessa walks up to Nero and swiftly grabs him by the collar of his shirt while pulling him towards her. This action makes Nero let go of Casey and face Vanessa. Casey's then in shock for a moment while straightening her posture to look at Vanessa. Right after that, Casey gives Vanessa an upset look and shouts, "What's the big idea, sis?!"

Nero's a bit nervous while being face to face with Vanessa and hesitantly says, "Uhh... Hey, Vanessa."

Vanessa looks at Nero while seriousness resonates within her eyes. She then suddenly smiles with sincerity taking over as she releases her grip on Nero's collar. After that, she hurriedly hugs him as if in fear that he's going to disappear while resting her head on his left shoulder. At the same time, Vanessa's looking away from him and whispers, "I missed you too, you know..."

Nero's moderately surprised by Vanessa's sudden action, but then smiles with his eyes shut while returning her embrace. Right after doing that, Nero whispers back in response to what she said, "And I missed you." He then slowly opens his eyes with sadness showing and softly says, "And I'm sorry about killing Lucas."

Vanessa instantly opens her eyes while being a bit surprised by what she just head. She then smiles, releases her hold on Nero and distance herself a bit from him with her attention now on him. "I don't know why you're apologizing about killing him. It's not like I had feelings for him. The only person I have feelings for is you. You already know that."

Casey arrogantly smirks and says while trying not to laugh, "Who are you kidding?! You can't fool anyone into believing that! We all know you had feelings for him!"

Vanessa glares at Casey with irritation being displayed. "Stop saying that! You've been bothering me with that stupid theory of me liking him ever since we were little! Can't you just quit already?!"

Nero gazes at Vanessa with sincerity gleaming in his eyes while slightly smiling. "It's alright, Vanessa. You can like two guys at the same time. There's no shame in finally admitting it."

Vanessa looks at him while being in shock due to what Nero had just said. She then looks down the floor while clenching her hands into fists. After doing that, she pulls her head up while starting to cry and says with a distraught tone, "Alright! I admit it!" She then lunges towards Nero and wraps her arms around his neck with her left cheek against Nero's left cheek. After doing that, she continues to cry while saying, "I loved him! Just like I love you! I hate that he had to die, but he had to if you were to survive!"

With that said, Vanessa keeps on crying while Casey's quite surprised by Vanessa's outburst. Casey then gets very sad while looking away from both Vanessa and Nero. She does her best to hold back tears that desperately want to escape her eyes.

Nero holds onto Vanessa with sorrow showing on his face and thinks, "I wish I could get rid of the pain she's feeling, but I can't. Lucas was going to die either way, so it was for the best that I took his life." He then closes his eyes while lowering his head a little and thinks, "I know that's what he wanted." Nero opens his eyes, lets go of Vanessa while backing away from her a bit and half-heartedly smiles. "Vanessa."

Vanessa looks at Nero with a hint of concern showing. "What is it, Nero?"

Nero calmly states, "It's good that you're honest with your feelings. And don't worry, you'll see him in heaven. Then we'll all be together again just like the good old days." He then closes his eyes while slightly tilting his head towards the left with a content smile.

Meanwhile, Vanessa was caught off guard by Nero's statement. She's then rapidly filled with joy while smiling back at Nero and nods with confidence brimming. "You're right! And when I see him, I'll tell him how I truly felt about him instead of insulting him and saying that he isn't good enough!"

Nero's quite content with what she said and happily nods. He then suddenly feels something on his right arm and turns his attention to the right with curiosity appearing. He sees that Casey had wrapped her arms around his arm and this causes him to be a bit nervous again while closing his eyes. "Ummm, Casey. Do you mind?"

Casey says with a pleading tone as she's intently looking at Nero, "Oh come on! Now that I have you all to myself, it's about time that we're this close!" She then smiles while saying in a teasing way, "And we can do something fun together, if you catch my drift." She giggles afterwards while winking at him.

Nero's stunned for a moment while he turns red a little and thinks to himself, "Is she suggesting what I think she's suggesting?!"

Vanessa looks at Casey while being very surprised by what she just said. Annoyance then consumes her entire being as she yells out while pointing at Casey with her right hand, "Wait a minute! What makes you think that you'll have him all to yourself?!"

Casey arrogantly peers at Vanessa while narrowing her eyes. "Well considering that you love Lucas, you wouldn't dishonor his memory by trying to go out with the guy who killed him, right?" She then giggles a little.

Vanessa promptly yells out of rage while taking a step towards Casey, "You have to be kidding me?! Don't use that against me! Sure I love Lucas, but I love Nero too! Anyway, Nero had no choice but to kill Lucas! So in no way it will dishonor him if we were to date!"

Casey gives Vanessa a look of determination while letting go of Nero and steps in front of him to face her sister. "Oh really! Well, it doesn't matter because Nero would definitely go out with me over you!"

Nero looks up at the ceiling with a hint of aggravation and mumbles to himself, "Not this again..."

Vanessa laughs while leaning towards Casey and smiles at her. "Oh really?! Why would he go out with a shrimp like you?!"

Casey turns bright red while gritting her teeth. She then yells out while being pissed off as she's leaning towards Vanessa with her hands on her hips, "It's not my fault that I'm the shortest person out of everyone in our class!"

Nero places his right hand on top of Casey's head to measure her height while giving off a curious look. "Oh yeah... You are shorter."

Casey's eyes instantly widen due to her being surprised by Nero's comment and then turns to face him with concern showing. "Does it matter that I'm shorter, Nero?!"

Nero smiles at Casey while lowering his posture a little to be at the same height as her and gives her a sincere smile. "Of course it doesn't matter to me, but-"

Vanessa straightens her posture with her hands behind her back and says with an arrogant tone while interrupting Nero, "It does matter that you're flat chested though." She then giggles.

Casey becomes furious as she turns her attention back to Vanessa and glares at her. "Fuck you!" She then gets closer to Vanessa and suddenly grabs her breasts with both hands while looking at them. "It's not my fault that it takes me longer to develop!" Afterwards, she looks up at Vanessa while squeezing her breasts. "You think you're so hot just because you have big boobs!"

Nero turns bright red while being stunned due to seeing what Casey just did as he's thinking, "Oh, God..."

Vanessa blushes a little while being shocked that Casey grabbed her breasts. She then yells out as she's very upset, "What did I tell you about touching my boobs when you want to make a point?!" Having said that, Vanessa forcefully makes Casey let go of her breasts by grabbing onto both of her wrists and pulls them down. At the same time, she glares at Casey while bent towards her a bit. "Don't do that! Especially when Nero's watching! It's humiliating!"

Casey yells back at Vanessa while making her face get close to Vanessa's. "Why are you complaining?! You should be happy that your body has already developed so much!" After saying that, Casey giggles a little with a smug look as she winks at Vanessa with her left eye, "Although... I don't need big tits to make guys want me. Everyday at school I see guys checking out my ass and just stare at my infinite beauty."

Vanessa smiles with a hint of skepticism. "Is that for a fact?! They must look at you when I'm not around because when I'm around, they're all checking me out!" She then giggles with confidence overflowing.

Casey makes a determined expression while glaring at Vanessa. In response, Vanessa glares right back at Casey with the same level of determination. In the meantime, Nero had walked around them and he's now standing at the food counter with a nonchalant demeanor. He then lifts up his right index finger next to his face and plainly says to the cafeteria clerk, who's wearing a white cafeteria outfit, "I need food."

The cafeteria clerk laughs while looking at Nero. He then looks towards Casey and Vanessa with a bit of concern. "Don't you think you need to stop them."

Nero closes his eyes while waving his right hand at the clerk. "Don't worry too much about it." He then smiles while turning around to face towards the direction Casey and Vanessa are located with his back resting against the counter. "I actually missed hearing them argue."

After saying that, Nero's suddenly consumed with sadness as he drops his head to stare at the floor while thinking, "I just wish I could convince them that the world isn't as bad as they think. Then maybe, I could keep them from sacrificing their lives for SEELE's ambition. I don't want to see them get hurt, but I know it's hopeless in trying to change their mind." With that thought, he looks up at Casey and Vanessa with a sad smile while whispering to himself, "I'm going to really miss them."

The scene ends right there as a couple of days pass by and all the injured children have regained consciousness. There was a bit of a commotion at first though. This was due to Shinji being upset about what Nero had done and throws a tantrum. It took both Asuka and Mari a while to calm him down. Once he was calm, Misato notified all of the children that they were going to get some answers from Gendo about Nero. Shinji was looking forward to this since he was mad at the fact that his father kept Nero's existence a secret and never told him that he has a brother.

Both Misato and the children are all now in Gendo's office while Kaji had left the day before in search of SEELE. They're face to face with Gendo as he's sitting behind his desk while being in his usual pose and Fuyutsuki's standing next to him like always. *Side Note: Misato and the children stand in the following order from left to right; Misato, Shinji, Mari, Asuka, Rei, Kensuke, Touji and Hikari. This order is based on Fuyutsuki and Gendo's point of view. Now in reference to what they are wearing, Misato, Fuyutsuki and Gendo are wearing what they normally wear in NERV while the children have their school uniform on due to it being what they commonly wear sometimes when they aren't in their apartment*

Misato looks at Gendo with seriousness brimming and says with a firm tone, "Alright, It's time for you to give us some answers! And don't give us any half-ass bullshit like you did last time! We deserve to know the truth!"

Gendo nods at Misato and then looks at all of the children as his attention directly focuses on Shinji with no real emotion being displayed. "To start with, I would like to apologize to you, Shinji. I kept Nero's existence from you all this time."

Shinji makes an upset expression as he takes a step forward and yells out, "Well it's too late for that! Why didn't you tell me that I have a twin brother, father?! And don't give me any bullshit about you promising him you wouldn't say anything. That's not going to be good enough!"

Gendo plainly responds. "I actually wanted to tell you, Shinji. When he told me that he wanted to join us, I thought it was perfect that you two were going to be reunited." He then gives off a slightly somber look as he veers away his attention from Shinji. "Unfortunately, he revealed that he had no intention of staying with us. In actuality, he wanted to kill all of us."

Hikari steps in with determination showing. "I don't believe that to be true, sir!"

That declaration from Hikari shocks everyone as they look at her in disbelief. Misato then asks her with concern arising, "What makes you think that?"

Hikari looks back at Misato and says with a hint of confidence in her voice, "He said something odd when I fought him. He made it sound like he didn't want to hurt me, or even fight us."

Asuka turns to Misato after hearing what Hikari had said. "He pretty much did the same thing with me! Right before he threw that ball of condensed A.T. Field energy, he told me to get away because he didn't want me to get hurt!"

Confusion can be noted on Touji's face as he looks at both Asuka and Hikari. "Why would he say that?! He said in the beginnin' that he doesn't care 'bout any of us! Why would he go against what he said?!"

Rei joins in while being quite confused as she looks at the others. "Do you think he was trying to trick us into believing that he didn't care?"

Shinji yells out with intensity as he gazes at Rei, "No! He wanted to kill all of us! There's no denying it!"

Mari looks at Shinji with a worried expression. She then places her right hand on his left shoulder to try to calm him down and says with a caring tone, "Chill out, Shinji. Wouldn't it be better that he didn't want to kill us?"

Shinji turns his attention towards Mari and responds with a distraught tone. "Of course! I didn't want to fight him! Not just because he's my brother, but because he was our friend! But he betrayed us, Mari! Even if he didn't want to, he still did it! He had almost killed all of us! That's why he has to pay! The next time I see him, I'll have to kill him!"

Asuka suddenly stands in front of Shinji while being infuriated by what he said and slaps him in the face with her right hand. This action causes Misato and the other children to be in shock as their eyes are on Shinji and Asuka.

After being slapped, Shinji's stunned for a moment as his face is pointing towards the right due to Asuka's slap. He then snaps his head towards Asuka with anger forming as he puts his left hand on his left cheek, which is the cheek Asuka slapped. "What was that for?!"

Asuka sharply retorts while still being upset, "Stupid Shinji! Don't you think! If he actually wanted to kill us, wouldn't he have done it already?!"

With those words spoken, Shinji's in shock as his jaw drops a little. Asuka then turns her attention towards Gendo and gives him a serious look while standing in a formal matter. "Commander Ikari. Please tell us everything we need to know about Nero. It's best we try to understand who he really is and then we can make the judgment if he's the enemy or not."

Misato keeps looking at Asuka as she's quite amazed while thinking, "Asuka... Did Nero really leave that much of an impression that your willing to defend him after all of this?" After thinking that, she smiles and thinks, "It seems like you've gotten over Shinji and fallen in love with Nero." She then turns her attention towards Gendo and says with a firm tone, "I agree with Asuka, Commander. Tell us everything about Nero Ikari."

In response, Asuka looks at Misato while being a bit surprised that she took her side. She then smiles while contentedly nodding and turns her attention back to Gendo. Meanwhile, Gendo looks at Misato and Asuka for a moment while contemplating about what to say. He then makes a decision and says to them, "If that's what you want then I'll tell you."

Gendo briefly pauses to clear his throat with his head lowered and then says while returning his attention to all of them, "Nero was an infant when I had him sent away to the institution that I mentioned during the battle. The scientist there had determined his IQ to be well over 200, though they weren't completely sure of how smart he really is." After saying that, Gendo looks at Shinji with a cold expression. "Shinji. You notice the physical differences between you and Nero, right?"

Shinji calmly nods at Gendo. "Yes, father. His eyes and hair color are different."

Gendo nods at Shinji and says with a composed tone, "Indeed, but although your physical differences are little, the difference in personality and capabilities are vast. Nero's an amazing pilot and he's also a college graduate."

Touji cuts in while saying with a skeptical tone, "So what? Asuka graduated from college too. What makes him so special?"

Gendo looks at Touji without turning his head. "He has two Master's degrees; One in Political Economics and another in Bio-Engineering. He also has a Ph.D. in Marine Biology."

Misato's a bit surprised by what she just heard while saying, "That's how he was able to cut off our control of Unit 03!" Having said that, Misato composes herself while being quite serious. "He must have specifically studied everything about Eva so that getting a Master's degree in Bio-Engineering would be a piece of cake!"

Gendo nods while looking at Misato. "Exactly. That was the only reason why he took Bio-Engineering. He also studied Political Economics out of the benefits of knowing how the government system works. The only thing he cared about was-"

Asuka interrupts him while saying what he was going to say with a hint of sadness, "Marine Biology. That's the only thing he studied that mattered to him in a personal way, right?"

Gendo looks at Asuka and says to her, "You are correct. When he was little, he would always look at pictures of what the ocean looked like before 2nd Impact. It became his goal to return it back to the way it was. I actually had hoped for him to achieve great things with his intelligence." He then focuses his attention towards Shinji again. "That's what I thought before your mother died."

After hearing that last thing Gendo had said, Shinji's consumed with sadness as he looks away from his father. Gendo then calmly says, "Shinji. Your mother told me that you are a frail child. That you needed a strong older brother to protect you. But after your mother's death, I ignored her wish. I had sent Nero back to the institution on the same day he had come back to Tokyo-03 because I wanted to use him."

Shinji turns his attention back to Gendo with an immense amount of shock being displayed while the others looked at Gendo with the same reaction. Afterwards, there's a vague look on Gendo's expression as he looks away from everyone. "I am a terrible father. All I cared about was getting Yui back. As a result, I ended up abandoning both of my sons."

Having said that, Gendo looks at Shinji once again. "But understand something, Shinji. Nero went through much worse things than what you did. He had run away from the institution at the age of four and was barely surviving in the outside world for six months. He was near death until Chairmen Keel found him and made a deal with him."

Shinji yells out while being very upset, "And why didn't you go and get him?! Why did you let Keel get a hold on him, father?!"

Gendo retorts with an emotionless tone, "Because all I cared about was being with your mother. I didn't care what would happen to him. He made the decision to run away, and for a moment, you two were completely alike. But unlike you, he didn't live his life being consumed by depression. He used every ounce of intelligence that he has and created a goal for himself. He may hate the world and the way it has turned out, but he still wants to make it beautiful again." Gendo looks downward with no real emotion. "That's what I think he still wants."

Asuka confidently states with a firm posture, "He does! I'm sure of it!"

With a hint of curiosity, Gendo gazes at Asuka. "How sure are you about that, Soryu?"

Asuka smiles while maintaining her confidence. "I'm 100% sure!" After saying that, she places her right hand on her chest. "And I believe that Nero does care about us!" Asuka then moves her hand from her chest and swiftly extends it towards her right. "If he didn't, that means he's one hell of an actor!"

Hikari giggles at Asuka's statement while Kensuke looks at Asuka with a skeptical expression. "It's weird that you're standing up for Nero so much Asuka. Is there a certain reason why you defend him so much?" He then chuckles a little.

Asuka immediately puts her hand down while turning bright red as she's in shock. Afterwards, she snaps her head to the left to look at Kensuke while being quite exasperated and shouts, "I don't know what you're talking about! We're just friends, nothing else!"

Shinji's quite surprised for a moment as his eyes are focused on Asuka. He then smiles while contentedly thinking to himself, "It looks like I was right. She really does have feelings for him." With that thought, Shinji looks at the floor with a bit of curiosity arising as he thinks, "I wonder how Nero feels about her."

Mari suddenly gets close to Shinji while looking at him with concern being noted. "What's on your mind, Shinji?"

Shinji's a bit startled due to him not expecting Mari's question as he looks up at her. He then smiles at her with a sincere expression and thinks, "That's right. I still haven't been completely honest with Mari like I should have been. Just like what Nero said. Well, there's one good way to show her how I feel. A way I learned from Asuka."

With that thought completed, Shinji leans towards Mari without any hesitation while closing his eyes and passionately kisses her on the lips. This action causes Mari to be momentarily stunned with her eyes wide open. She then happily smiles and kisses him back while quickly embracing him. Touji's the first to notice the two of them kissing and yells out in surprise as he points his right hand at them with a smile on his face, "Shinji and Mari are making-out!"

After hearing what Touji said, the others look at Shinji and Mari while being quite surprised. Asuka's stunned at first while feeling a bit of jealousy rising since there are still some lingering feelings for Shinji. She then hurriedly brushes it off with a slight smile and thinks, "Whatever. As if I care to do anything about it after breaking up with him. I hope they're happy together."

Gendo smirks while there's a hint of content due to seeing happiness on Shinji's person. He then composes himself within an instant while clearing his throat with his head lowered a little. Fuyutsuki realizes what Gendo is implying while glancing at him. Right after that, he turns his attention towards everyone and says with a stern tone, "I hate to interrupt this special moment, but Commander Ikari has not finish yet."

Misato and the others quickly return their focus onto Gendo. This includes Shinji and Mari, whom have stopped kissing and give him their undivided attention while trying to be quite serious, but seem to have a bit of a hard time due to the happiness they both are feeling within themselves. Gendo then looks up at all of them and says with a composed tone, "I would like to know. How many of you believe that Nero is still the enemy?"

Due to Gendo's question, Misato and the children look at each other while some of them aren't too sure what to say to him. Asuka then takes a step forward with determination radiating from her. "I don't think he's our enemy! And I'm completely sure that he'll come back to us!"

Gendo gives Asuka a curious look while asking, "What makes you think that?"

Shinji walks up right next to Asuka with confidence showing as he's looking at Gendo. "Because he's still our friend, and I know he cares about us. It's like what Asuka said; If he didn't care, he would have already killed us. He had the perfect chance to do it."

Asuka quickly veers her attention towards Shinji with a content smile while thinking, "Way to go, Shinji."

Gendo stares at Shinji for a moment and then turns his attention to the others. "What about the rest of you?"

Kensuke makes a sad expression while looking away from the others. "I'm not too sure. There's still a chance that he's the enemy. I don't think we should drop our guard with him."

Touji's looking at everyone with seriousness in his eyes. "Kensuke's right. Anyway, he still broke his promise. That's somethin' I cannot forgive that fast."

Hikari looks at Touji with sincerity brimming. "I'm sorry, Suzuhara. But I have to disagree with you. I feel it in my heart that Nero does care about us. What he did to us was because he had to."

Touji's surprised at what Hikari said while looking at her for a moment. He then regains his composure and says with a somber tone, "Well I won't argue with ya, Hikari. If ya think he actually cares 'bout us then I agree." After saying that, he smiles a little at her.

Hikari smiles right back at Touji while giving out a short nod. "Thank you, Suzuhara."

Rei looks at them for a moment and then returns her gaze to Gendo with a caring expression. "The last thing I want is to kill Nero. Not only is he Shinji's brother and your son, he's also our friend. I would never accept him being the enemy as an option."

Kensuke sighs while putting his head down and says with a plain tone, "I guess if Rei wants to believe in Nero, then I will too." He lifts his head up to look at everyone.

Mari walks up next to Shinji, gently grabs onto his hands with both of her's and says with a hyped up tone as her face is pretty close to his, "Of course! Nero's one of us! Let's forgive him for hurting us because everyone deserves a second chance!" She then laughs softly with her eyes shut.

Shinji contentedly nods while looking at Mari. "Mh-hmm."

Misato watches all of the children while being quite pleased by their words. She then focuses her attention back to Gendo and says, "There you go, Commander. It's unanimous. The next time we see Nero, we'll have faith that he'll return to us."

Gendo sharply nods at Misato in response. "If that's what you all desire then so be it. But we must be cautious with confronting him in the case he doesn't come back to our side. Understand?"

Misato and the children all look at Gendo with determination and nod in agreement. This causes Gendo to smirk while being quite content and thinks, "There may still be hope, Yui. We can all be together if he makes the right decision."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

I hope you all enjoyed the episode. I made it pretty funny with the argument between Casey and Vanessa. I will give you their description again since they have grown up quite a bit. This episode was majorly focused on the topic of Nero, but what did you expect? He is the character I created, after all. I might be taking a break from this story for a while to focus on other things. Either way, look forward to the next episode whenever I decide to post it because I have something quite interesting planned.

Character Description:

Casey Crest - age 14, half American and half British. She has light skin, weighs 110 pounds and slim body. She has light brown, wavy, long hair while her eyes are hazel color and she's 5'0". The following is for the perverts. *Laughs* Like Casey stated earlier, she has a nice ass, but her tits are only size 34B. She was complaining about her tits because she considers that they aren't developed due to how big her sister's tits are in comparison. Also, her birthday is July 19, 2001, which this is why she's still 14 since her birthday hasn't passed yet.

Vanessa Crest - age 15, half American and half Japanese. She has light skin as well, she weighs 117 pounds, thin body, her hair is light brown, straight and short while she likes to keep it the back part tied up. Her eyes are hazel as well while she's 5'6". Once again for the perverts, she has a nice ass while her tits are size 38C. Her tits are just as big as Mari's tits. I hope that helps your imagination. Also, her birthday is April 11, 2001, which this is why she's 15 since her birthday has already passed. Now I'm going to say this before any of you want to call me an idiot because you must be thinking how the hell is Casey and Vanessa sisters if they were born in the same year while being a bit over two months apart. Easy, they have the same dad, but different moms. That obviously means that their dad is a sleazy bastard! *Laughs* Enough said.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	19. Episode 19

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

Okay, I'm back after being gone for over a month. *Smiles* Like I said at the end of the previous episode, this episode will have something interesting in it and maybe it will be something pretty kick-ass. I'm kind of debating on how to make it work, but I assure all of you that I will do my best to make it entertaining. So enjoy while always remembering that Gainax owns Neon Genesis Evangelion and no one should ever claim that it's theirs unless being able to prove it.

Episode 19: True Desire

The scene starts off with Kaji appearing in front of a small brick house that's located in the middle of a forest while it's late in the afternoon. Around 4 PM to be more accurate as Kaji's leaning against the wall that's next to the house's main entrance. The door then opens up enough to reveal a man in his late 40s while looking pretty worn out. This man is represented as one of Kaji's sources, although he doesn't look it due to his appearance.

The man plainly gazes at Kaji and says with a mildly agitated tone, "What is it now, Ryoji? I gave you all the information I had on NERV the last time you came here. Why don't you ask my sister for what you need? She usually knows about the same intel that I know about."

Kaji looks at the man out of the corner of his eyes with a smile. "It isn't about NERV this time. Anyway, I already spoke to your sister. She gave me all the information that she had. She told me if I needed more info to ask you."

The man raises his left eyebrow while curiosity arises from within. "Info on who?"

Kaji turns his attention away from the man to look in front of him and says with a serious tone, "On SEELE."

The man continues to be curious while asking, "SEELE, huh?" He smiles while completely opening the door and steps outside. The man then sits on the doorstep while looking at the ground. "That's an interesting topic. What do you want to know?"

Kaji looks at him out of the corner of his eyes while being a bit serious. "I need info on their location. I already ruled out Antarctica as an obvious location while already confirming four out of six Continents aren't hiding them. I can thank your sister for that intel." He smiles a little.

The man turns his head to look at Kaji with piercing eyes. "What options do you have left?"

Kaji continues to look at the man while pulling out a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket with his left hand. He then places a cigarette in his mouth, and with his right hand, he lights it up with a silver lighter. After that, Kaji inhales on the cigarette a little bit and lets some smoke out. "The last two Continents are North America and Asia. I just finished searching through South America and found no leads."

The man smirks while turning his attention towards the ground as his eyes become a bit dull. "Then let me help you out quite a bit. Don't bother searching through Russia. They no longer have any ties with SEELE since they were always left in the dark by them. That seriously pissed them off." Due to that last part, the man chuckles a little.

Kaji smiles while nodding as he's looking in front of himself. "Well if you say so. It sure helps that they aren't going to be a factor. It would have been a pain searching for SEELE in Russia."

The man calmly says with his focus still on the ground, "If you go to Asia, start with China. They most likely have some connection with SEELE. They always seemed like SEELE's biggest supporters."

Kaji's concerned by the man's words as he turns his body to face him. "What makes you think that?"

The man responds with no change to his focus. "Keel in specific always had a pretty good relationship with them. I doubt they would ever reject him if he were to go to them." The man smirks while glancing at Kaji for a moment, but then turns his attention back to the ground.

Kaji smiles while leaning his left side against the wall and folds his arms at the same time. "Then I know where to go next."

The man looks at Kaji out of the corner of his eyes and says with a slightly teasing tone, "Don't get too ahead of yourself. There's still North America that you have to consider."

Curiosity starts to dwell within Kaji's being as he maintains his composure. "I wouldn't think that North America would be connected to SEELE anymore. They even abandoned the 1st Branch to show that they don't want to be involved with the battle between Japan and SEELE."

The man states in response to what Kaji said with no real emotion showing, "It's true that the 1st Branch was abandoned, but... It was only abandoned by those who weren't aligned with SEELE."

Kaji's a bit confused by what the man said while pulling his head back a little. "What are you talking about?!"

The man smiles while looking down at the ground again as a small, brown/white, persian kitten with green eyes walks up to him. He then pets the kitten with his left hand while simply saying, "I'm not surprised that you didn't know. It was top-secret information."

Kaji's slightly irritated while narrowing his eyes a little. He then removes the cigarette from his mouth with his right hand while unfolding his arms. "Just tell me already. Don't beat around the bush so much."

The man chuckles as he briefly closes his eyes. While doing that, he stops petting the kitten and it casually walks away from him. The man then opens his eyes and turns his attention to Kaji with a serious look. "Alright, here it is. SEELE never actually trusted America's 1st Branch. To be more specific, Keel didn't trust them since he wasn't too sure if they were on his side. Even though America did take part in the attack on NERV's MAGI, there was always some trust issues. As a result, SEELE had stationed some of their own personal men to work with them while also making sure that there was no treachery."

Kaji cocks his head a bit to the right with curiosity resurfacing. "You think they're still there? Those who are still aligned with SEELE."

The man sheepishly responds. "Possibly, but I doubt SEELE would take such a huge risk in going to the 1st Branch to use as any form of a hideout."

After hearing what the man said, Kaji says with a firm tone, "That means China is pretty much the only option for them. Any other place I haven't checked yet would be too risky for them. After all, they don't have any real connections with them anymore."

The man says with a nonchalant tone as he looks up at the sky, "Except the 4th Branch."

Kaji makes a confused expression while leaning towards the man a little. "The 4th Branch? Isn't that located in China?"

The man looks directly at Kaji while slowly shaking his head. "That's what they wanted you to think. The Branch in China is only known as NERV-China, not as the 4th Branch. The 5th Branch in an ironic contradiction isn't actually supposed to be called by a number. It's actually called the Bethany Branch, but some people just like to call it that out of preference. In the case of a '4th Branch', the one that fits the bill for that title is the Branch located in Canada."

Kaji pulls back a bit with surprise noted. "I never heard of that Branch before."

The man says with a hint of arrogance, "I'm not surprised about that either." He then says with a moderately serious tone, "It's actually a top-secret Branch that there's not much information on. This info I'm giving you is actually mostly based on speculation, but if I were you, I would check it out before going anywhere else. Better safe than sorry, right?" The man lightly smiles after saying that.

Kaji nods with a determined expression. "Thanks for the info. Now, there's something else I need to know about. It still pertains to SEELE."

In response, the man becomes quite curious as he tilts his head towards the left. Kaji then changes his expression into a serious one while saying with a stern tone, "Do you know anything about a 14-year-old boy by the name of Nero Akaya?" *Side Note: This is so that you know. Shinji and Nero's birthday is June 6, 2001. Based on the time frame I'm using, they will be 15 in about a few weeks*

The man raises his eyebrows while being a bit surprised to hear Nero's name. He then composes himself and says with a bland tone, "I've heard of him. He's supposed to be the smartest person in the world. Though that information is highly kept secret. Probably somebody wants to keep him all to himself and not let many know about his existence"

Kaji leans toward the man with seriousness still being displayed. "Anything else? Like something that involves SEELE?"

The man looks down towards the ground that's in front of him with his eyes shut and slowly shakes his head. "Sadly, I don't." He then opens his eyes to look at the ground again. "But what I do know is that Nero Akaya is quite famous aside from some countries not knowing about him."

Kaji squints his eyes a little while straightening his posture. "Really? What's he famous for?"

The man smirks while turning his head to look up at Kaji. "He came up with multiple theories to restore the world back to the way it was."

Kaji's completely surprised by the man's words while saying, "He did?!" He then suddenly feels a burning sensation on his fingers and yelps in pain when he realizes that his cigarette is burning him while dropping the cigarette. After doing that, Kaji quickly starts to blow on his hand while holding it with his other hand as he's trying to calm himself.

The man throws his head back with his eyes closed and starts laughing. "You should keep a better eye on your cigarette, Ryoji!"

Kaji looks at the man with a hint of annoyance while still holding onto his burnt hand. He then regains his composure and puts his hands down while asking, "So... You're telling me that Nero Akaya actually came up with different ways to return Earth back to the way it was?"

The man responds with a bit of arrogance showing. "That's what I said." Curiosity is then displayed a little on his face as he says, "So tell me, why do you think he would be connected to SEELE? If SEELE achieves 4th Impact, the whole world would pretty much be torn apart. I can't imagine someone who's worked so hard to restore the world is going to be involved with SEELE."

Kaji looks down at the ground while thinking, "Why doesn't that sound right? Nero said that he wanted to destroy mankind. Initiating 4th Impact would leave the world in a state that's worse than it was after 3rd Impact. There wouldn't be anyone to do a thing afterwards. It doesn't make any sense."

With that thought completed, Kaji realizes something, which causes his eyes to widen slightly, and then turns his attention to the man with seriousness brimming. "One more question."

The man nods at Kaji and says with a plain tone, "Go for it."

Kaji asks with a moderately somber tone, "Did you know that Gendo Ikari has two sons?"

Hearing that causes the man to be very surprised and says in a whisper, "He has what?!"

Kaji sighs while dropping his head down with his eyes closed. "Never mind." He returns his focus onto the man again. "With that reaction, you obviously didn't know."

The man continues to be surprised for a moment. He then smiles at Kaji with an apologetic expression replacing his surprise. "Sorry about that. That was too much of a shock for me. There's no information on Ikari having more than one son."

Kaji nods while giving the man a plain look. "I know." Kaji reaches into his pants' pocket with his left hand while turning his attention downward. He then pulls out a roll of a hundred-dollar bills and hands it to the man while looking at him again with a smirk. "The usual payment, right?"

The man nods while warmly smiling. "That's fine." He takes the money from Kaji with his right hand and holds onto it while putting his hand down next to his right leg. "Good doing business with you."

Kaji cheerfully nods at him. "Likewise." He then turns his attention away from the man to look in front of himself and starts to walk away.

The man watches Kaji at first with content being displayed and then remembers something while looking up at the sky. Afterwards, he regains his composure, and gazes at Kaji. "Hold on, Ryoji. There's something I think you should know."

Kaji stops walking and turns to face the man with a hint of curiosity being displayed. "What is it?"

The man slightly smiles. "This is hearsay so I won't charge you, but I think it's for the best that I tell you instead of keeping you in the dark about it."

Kaji slowly walks up to the man with slight concern now being displayed. "If you think it's something I need to know then tell me." He then smiles. "It's better that I know everything you have."

The man nods at Kaji with a decent level of calmness. "Here it is. Apparently from the information I gathered earlier today, there are a lot of people in Canada that have reported that they saw a giant, unidentified object head towards the sky and leave the Earth's orbit."

Kaji raises his eyebrows a little while being quite surprised by what he just heard. "A giant, unidentified object?"

The man calmly nods at him in response. "This is why I said that it would be best for you to head to Canada first. Although the people who saw the object aren't being taken seriously, it seemed a bit too much of a coincidence that something like that is claimed to be seen by anyone in that area when it supposedly has a secret Branch that not many people know about."

Kaji gives the man a serious look while sharply nodding. "I really do appreciate the free info."

The man smirks and yells out with his head thrown back while his eyes are closed, "Of course you do! It's FREE after all!" He then starts to laugh without changing his posture.

Kaji smiles while shaking his head a little out of light disapproval. "You haven't changed one bit." He then turns around and starts to walk away while putting his hands in his pockets. "I'll be seeing you."

The man stops laughing to look at Kaji and waves at him with content. "Alright. Farewell, Ryoji."

As Kaji continues to walk away from the man, he looks at the ground while thinking with some seriousness being displayed. "I need to head to Canada as soon as possible. If I can confirm that SEELE is hiding out there, then we can finally bring the fight to them." He then looks up in front of himself with determination brimming due to there being hope that he finally found out where SEELE's located.

The scene promptly changes to focus on Nero. He's currently inside the room that he was in when he called Gendo before joining NERV. He's lying on the bed while facing towards the ceiling as the room is pretty dark. On a dresser that's located at the end of Nero's bed, there's a clock that shows the time being 6:21 PM. Also, towards Nero's right, there's a table that has his laptop on it while it's connected to two medium-size speakers and it's playing "Partita 3 fur Violin Solo in E No 3". The reason Nero's listening to music off his laptop is because he had to leave his music player and all of his other stuff that he had taken with him when he joined NERV. This is obviously due to the fact that he had no time to retrieve his stuff when he betrayed NERV.

Nero watches the ceiling with his hands behind his head and then says with a somber tone while spacing out, "The repairs on Unit 03 have been completed." After saying that, he turns his attention towards the right to look at his laptop and listens to the music that's being played for a moment. He then says with sadness reflecting in his eyes, "This means SEELE will launch their next attack some time tomorrow. They'll want me to be involved since I did come really close to annihilating NERV."

Suddenly, an image of Shinji and the others go through Nero's mind, which surprises him a little. Seriousness then overtakes his expression as he slowly sits up while maintaining his focus on the laptop in a sideways position. After a few seconds go by, Nero smiles with sincerity emitting from his person. "I guess it's time... To stop lying to myself..." He tilts his head back a bit while turning his attention towards the ceiling and continues to smile. "And to finally try to be happy. Just like I had promised Rivka I would."

With that statement, a few moments pass by and for no apparent reason, the emergency alarm of the 4th Branch *SEELE's Hideout* goes off. All of its personnel are caught off guard by it as it's then revealed that the cause of the emergency alarm going off is because Unit 03 had activated without permission. The black Eva is now wreaking havoc inside the facility's cage, which is where Unit 03 was being held.

Nero's inside Unit 03's entry plug with his plugsuit on. He's leaning forward quite a bit with his hands firmly on the controls while Unit 03 destroys anything in its path. As Unit 03 does this, determination's overflowing from Nero's demeanor. "If you guys don't want to die, then get the hell out of my way! Thanks to all of you, Unit 03 now has an S2 Engine and I'm not afraid to use it!" He then chuckles a little while joyfully smiling.

In the meantime, Evan runs up to a railing that's near Unit 03 while being in disbelief as he's looking at it. He then turns his attention towards the lower level of the cage's room and sees a male technician running away. "Hey! What's going on with Unit 03?!"

The male technician immediately stops and turns to look at Evan while panicking due to the destruction that's being created by Unit 03. "I don't really know! The Eva just suddenly activated for no reason!"

Evan places his hands on the railing while leaning on it to look down onto the technician. "Did it activate by itself?! Are there any signs of a pilot?!"

The male technician responds with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "I'm not sure, but I know that it's being looked into!" Suddenly, there's a giant explosion and this causes the man to quickly snap his head towards his right, which is the direction where Unit 03 is at, while panicking even more.

Evan turns his attention towards the left to look at the source of the explosion as well. He's then shocked to see that Unit 03 had broken through one of the cage's walls and went through it to exit the room. Afterwards, he yells out in a commanding tone as he turns his attention back to the technician, "I want someone to find out and tell me what the hell's happening!"

Keel suddenly appears in the form of his Monolith while being right behind Evan and says with a stern tone, "There's no need, Evan."

Evan's caught off guard due to hearing Keel's voice all of a sudden and then quickly turns around to face the Monolith with concern showing. "What do you mean?!"

Keel firmly answers. "It's Nero. He's the only one who can pilot that Eva and do that without anyone noticing that he even got inside of it."

Evan's surprised by what he just heard while yelling out, "But why?! I thought he was on our side! What does he expect to gain from doing this?! Does he want to be enemies with both NERV and us?!"

Keel responds calmly. "I don't know. This was what I was worried about. Even though it seemed he was siding with us after he betrayed NERV, but he could have done all of that to trick us."

Evan gets really irritated while gesturing with his right hand in front of him. "That doesn't make any sense! He won't have any allies after this stunt he's pulling! What could he possibly be thinking?!"

Keel thinks to himself while being a bit concerned, "That's something I wish I could figure out. After finally thinking I have complete control over him, he proves me wrong in the worse possible way." He then says out loud with a commanding tone, "Evan! You must intercept him with Unit 07!"

Evan's quite stunned by Keel's command as he puts his right arm down and takes a step back for a moment. He then gestures with both hands in front of him with worry rising. "Wait a minute! You don't mean for me to face him in my current state, do you?!" With that said, Evan lowers his right hand and extends out his left arm towards his side. "For me to be on par with Nero, I need the amplifier and that takes a long time to hook up!"

Keel says with a stern tone in response to Evan's concern, "All you need to do is stall him until I contact Unit 06's pilot and have him return immediately. He should have retrieved what he needed by now. It's apparent that without the amplifier, you wouldn't last long against Nero."

Evan gets a bit irritated due to Keel's statement being true. Determination then fills his face as he nods. "Alright! I'll do everything I can to stall him!" Evan turns away from the Monolith and runs off towards the opposite direction that Unit 03 went while thinking with an upset expression, "Nero...!"

Keel's Monolith disappears from the cage's room and appears in the room where the other members of SEELE's Monoliths are located. After that, Keel says to them with a serious tone, "I already gave Evan the order to intercept Nero. He will stall until Unit 06 returns."

SEELE # 6 says with a worried tone, "Are you sure he can handle Nero without the amplifier? In comparison, Nero won't even break much of a sweat against Evan if he makes Unit 03 go Berserk."

Keel plainly retorts. "I know that, but Evan can hold his ground long enough for Unit 06 to come back. It's about time that those two met anyway." He chuckles in a sinister way.

SEELE # 2 says with a stern tone, "That may be true, but I never thought it would be under these circumstances. Why is Nero betraying us? I thought he wanted the same thing that we do."

SEELE # 8 gives out a fake laugh and then says with an arrogant tone, "Apparently you thought wrong, just like the rest of us! But it is our own fault to think he would be so obedient after what happened with the 2nd Branch!"

Keel responds to what SEELE # 8 said. "You're right. I take full responsibility of foolishly trusting him. I should have know better that he could act heartless and make-believe that he's on our side. Then out of nowhere cause us so much complications." He then yells out with an upset tone, "But he won't get away with it! If he's going to betray us, then he'll have to pay the consequences for his actions, and he'll pay with his life!"

The scene changes after that outburst from Keel and focuses on the outside of the 4th Branch's facility, which is located in the outskirts of Toronto, Canada, as it's now night-time. There's a sudden explosion that produces a large amount of smoke that causes numerous, different sounding alarms to go off. Afterwards, Unit 03 emerges from the smoke and quickly marches outside while putting some distance between it and the 4th Branch.

Unit 03 suddenly stops moving while turning to face the 4th Branch. Nero then smiles with a hint of sadness showing as he stares at the facility. "I'm sorry, Vanessa... Casey... But this is the only way if I want to be with them. From now on, we're enemies."

After saying that, Nero notices out of the corner of his right eye that a fierce shock-wave is heading towards him. In response, Unit 03 jumps backwards while barely dodging the shock-wave as it passed right in front of the black Eva. Unit 03 then lands on its feet while turning to face towards where the shock-wave originated from as some concern can be seen on Nero's person. He then lightly smiles as he sees who had launched the attack. "Well look who it is. It's Unit 07."

Unit 07 appears in the form of a dark red and brown colored Eva while its body structure is like most Evas. The shaping of its head is like most Evas while having sharp edges sticking towards the back of the head/ The only thing on its face is a "X" that lights up with a red color similar to the eyes of Unit 01 when it transcended to its truest form. At the same time, Evan's wearing a red and brown plugsuit, which matches Unit 07, while having an "X" on the back of the plugsuit where the number would be as the plugsuit still has the number "07" on the front where the number is normally located.

Evan stares Unit 03 down with a serious glare as his body's bent forward and says with an enraged tone, "You son of a bitch! I can't believe how much of a traitor you are! I swear you were born just to be a liar and deceiver!"

Nero chuckles and says with a skeptical tone while raising his right eyebrow, "Oh really? It's interesting that you say that. You should know that I wouldn't lie or deceive anyone without a good reason."

Evan yells out while being very upset, "Shut the hell up! You know, I'm glad you're stupid enough to betray us. Now I can show SEELE that we don't need you!"

Nero cheerfully smiles, leans forward a bit and says to himself, "I had a feeling you would say that. After you finally told me what you desire, I knew we would fight."

Evan suddenly yells out with a demented expression, "But answer me something, Nero! Why the hell did you betray us?! I want to know so I can tell Vanessa and Casey, the two girls that are madly in love with you, the reason why you turn your back on them!" He then slightly lowers his head as he makes an evil-like smile. "I really could care less on the other hand. I always planned on killing you to gain my spot as the True Evangelion's pilot. But just for their benefit, tell me what are you going to get from doing this?"

Nero's a little surprised by Evan's question for a small moment. He then closes his eyes while lowering his head and gives out a soft laugh. "It's actually quite funny. The reason I'm doing this..."

Evan leans his back against his seat and cocks his head to the right with confusion overtaking his person. Nero then says with no change to his tone, "First off, I never expected fighting any of you. I thought it would be enough that Shinji would find a way to kill me, although I really doubted that he could. But if he could do that, I knew SEELE's chances in succeeding would be cut in half. I would have been fine with dying as long as I knew that."

After saying that, Nero slowly opens his eyes while happily saying, "But thanks to Asuka, I remember that I need to live so I could be happy." He slowly lifts up his head to look directly at Unit 07. "And the only place I can be happy right now is with my brother and the friends I made in Tokyo-03."

Evan promptly gives out a fake laugh in response to what Nero said while bending forward again. "As if they would want you back! You tried to kill them! If you go back, they'll think that you're going to betray them again! They'll just lock you up until they decide when to kill you! You know your father well enough! He would definitely do that!"

Nero smirks while slightly being surprised. "I forgot that you guys always knew about who I really am." Confidence then arises while planting his back against the seat. "That just proved that you guys meant a lot to me and I wasn't worried about you knowing that I'm an Ikari."

Evan gets very irritated while saying with a hint of doubt in his voice, "Really? Well if we meant so much to you, then why betray us for people who most likely hate you now for what you did to them?"

Nero replies with sadness showing due to what he's about to say. "The reason why I'm leaving is because all of you can't accept the world the way it is. Casey and Vanessa want to see the world destroyed because they've only seen pain in this world. Lucas fought for recognition and didn't care if he would annihilate mankind for that. You pretty much want to be like God and don't care if you cause the destruction of the world in the process." Fierceness then takes over while Nero tightens his grip on the controls. "There's no way I can let that happen."

Evan gets pissed off by Nero's words and yells out, "What the hell are you talking about?! You don't like the way the world is either!"

Nero chuckles lightly. "True, but I don't want to destroy it. I only said I wanted to destroy it along with mankind to Shinji and the others so they wouldn't hold back against me. You, Lucas, Vanessa and Casey already knew what I want to do for the world."

Evan says with a somber tone as sadness fills his chest. "You want to restore it..."

Nero nods while happily smiling. "That's my dream. That, and to be happy. To be happy became my dream when I met Rivka. She showed me that even as the world is now, it's still beautiful. That someone like me deserves to be happy and feel love. I want to bring back the world's natural beauty and I want to be in love again because that's where happiness lies for me. " After saying that, Nero sees a sudden image of Asuka go through his mind, which surprises him a little. He then smiles and thinks to himself, "And she's the one I need to be with to achieve that happiness."

Evan's stunned for a moment as he thinks, "Love...? He never once spoke of love, and now, it's the most important thing to him?" He's then overcome with rage again and yells out, "You have to be kidding me! That's the dumbest thing I ever heard come out of your mouth!"

Nero sighs while lowering his head with his eyes closed and then looks at Unit 07 without any emotion showing. "I'm really sorry you feel that way." Determination fills Nero's person as he smiles. "But I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince you! You make your own choices in life and you have to stand by what you believe in! Just like what Lucas did!"

Evan gets even more angry while yelling out. "Don't mention that retard's name! He's a loser and a freaking retard for fighting for something as stupid as recognition! That's why SEELE gave me his spot to pilot this great Eva!" With that said, Unit 07 points its right arm towards Unit 03 as four antennas stick out from it.

Nero's eyes widen while being a bit surprised. "The Crusher System? So that's what he attacked me with? But that shouldn't be able to reach this far." Evan then makes Unit 07 release a shock-wave and it quickly heads towards Unit 03 with amazing speed. In response, seriousness overtakes Nero's expression while having Unit 03's A.T. Field deploy right before the shock-wave was going to come into contact with Unit 03.

Unfortunately, Unit 03's A.T. Field suddenly shatters and this surprises Nero as he yells out, "No way! It actually broke my A.T. Field!" He then feels a slight pain to his body since some of the Crusher System's shock-wave was able to maintain itself after breaking through Unit 03's A.T. Field and had hit Nero's Eva in the face.

Evan smirks with arrogance being noted. "Surprised, Nero?! Did you actually think that my Crusher System would be as weak as that Dummy Eva that you faced?! Don't make me laugh!"

Nero laughs a little while rubbing his left cheek with the back of his right hand to show where the pain he felt from his synchronization. "I may have thought that at first, but you taught me the valuable lesson of not assuming." After saying that, Nero grabs onto the controls with seriousness taking over while thinking, "That means all information on the Crusher System is pretty useless. Obviously it can extend out to long-range now, it's strong enough to break through my A.T. Field while I'm just under 100% synchronization, and I bet it doesn't have the six shot limit anymore."

Evan smiles with skepticism being displayed. "What are you going to do, Nero?! Are you going to give up and beg for your life?!" He chuckles a little. "As if that would do you any good! Keel's really pissed off at your little stunt! There's no more chances for you! You're going to die and it's your own fault for believing you can be happy with those idiots at NERV!"

Nero makes a slightly annoyed expression due to the last thing Evan said. He then takes a deep breath to calm himself down with his head lowered. Afterwards, he looks at Unit 07 with determination arising and makes Unit 03 dash towards it. Evan smirks at the sight of Unit 03's advancement while Unit 07 dashes towards the black Eva as well. As both Evas get close to each other, Unit 07 lets out another shock-wave by thrusting its right arm towards Unit 03.

Unit 03 responds by ducking to dodge the shock-wave and then thrusts its left hand towards Unit 07's head. Evan sees this and makes Unit 07 dodge by having it move its head to the left. Afterwards, Unit 07 lifts its arm up a bit and swings it downward towards Unit 03.

A hint of annoyance can be seen on Nero's face as he watches Unit 07's hand descend towards him. Unit 03 then deploy its A.T. Field and successfully blocks the strike. After having his attack blocked, Evan gives out a loud, short laugh while showing a profound amount of confidence. "You think that pathetic A.T. Field will hold up?! You have to be on crack or something!" Unit 07 then uses its Crusher System and easily breaks through Unit 03's A.T. Field.

Nero's a bit startled due to Unit 03's A.T. Field being destroyed so easily. He then quickly regains his focus and makes Unit 03 jump backwards while barely dodging the shock-wave. As Unit 03 gains some distance from Unit 07 while still facing towards it, Nero contentedly says with his head down, "I have to hand it to you, Evan. You're better than I thought." He then lifts his head up to look at Unit 07 with a joyous smile.

Evan gets very irritated by Nero's comment as he stares at Unit 03 and says with an arrogant tone, "Of course! I can't say that about you though! Keel must be getting senile if he thought you're needed. Especially considering that he forgave you for not following the orders he gave when you were in the 2nd Branch!"

With that said, Evan realizes something while his eyes widen. He then smiles with curiosity brimming and tilts his head slightly to the left. "That reminds me, didn't you disobeyed SEELE because you fell in love with some stupid slut that died protecting you?"

Nero is immediately in shock after hearing what Evan had said. He then tightens his grip on the controls while glaring at Unit 07 with rage resonating in his eyes. "Do you mind... Repeating that...?"

Evan cocks his head back, leans against his seat and arrogantly laughs while looking towards Unit 03. "What are you, deaf?! I said that STUPID SLUT died protecting you!" He then quickly leans forward. "And she deserved to die if she was that stupid AND slutty! I bet you anything she was cheating on you when the two of you were together, but you didn't think that even for a moment because you're so full of yourself!" After that, Evan says in a mocking way, "No one can ever out smart you, right?!"

Having said that, Evan laughs with his head cocked back again for a moment and then looks at Unit 03 again. "But she probably did and felt bad, so she threw her life away so you would never find out! That's how STUPID she is!" He chuckles a little. "How does it feel to have fallen in love with such a SLUT?!" Evan laughs again while tilting his head back against the seat with his eyes closed.

Nero grits his teeth while still glaring at Unit 07 and then calms himself down by taking a deep breath with his head down. After doing that, Nero whispers to himself with a hint of disappointment in his voice, "You idiot..."

Without even hearing what Nero just said, curiosity shows itself on Evan's expression as he's leaning forward again. "What is it? Aren't you going to argue with me about how it isn't true? Or maybe..." He then smiles arrogantly while shouting out, "You know that it IS true! That's why you aren't arguing with me!" He gives out a short laugh. "Let's just hope that new girl who matters so much to you isn't as slutty as her, but I wouldn't be surprised if she is!" He then starts to laugh again.

Nero says with a somber tone with his head still down, "Berserker..." He then snaps his head up to look at Unit 07 with intensity and screams out, "Over 300%!" With Nero's cry, Unit 03 suddenly tilts its head back while its mouth opens as its stripes glow. Its A.T. Field then expands and causes the ground under it to break off.

Evan's stunned as he sees Unit 03 go through its change and then grins with arrogance brimming. "Did I hit a nerve? You're just as sensitive as that retard." Unit 03 then suddenly glares at Unit 07 and quickly dashes towards it with incredible speed while letting out grunting sounds.

In response, Unit 07 points both of its arms towards Unit 03 while the left arm has antennas come out of it just like the right arm. Evan then laughs in a sinister way. "Let's see how you handle two Crusher Systems?!" With that said, Unit 07 releases a large shock-wave that's created by the combined efforts of both Crusher Systems and heads directly towards Unit 03.

Without any hesitation, Nero lets Unit 03 take the shock-wave head on and effortlessly passes through it while reaching Unit 07. This causes Evan to let out a gasp while trying to make Unit 07 dodge backwards. Nero then smirks while Unit 03 grabs onto both of Unit 07's arms with both hands. After that, the black Eva pulls on the arms while leaning backwards. As a result, Unit 07 is lifted off the ground and is thrown into the air.

Meanwhile, Evan screams as Unit 07 is frantically spinning in the air due to the force that was put into the throw by Unit 03. Right after that, Unit 03 bends forward and creates a shock-wave with the use of its A.T. Field to hit the ground. This launches Unit 03 into the air while doing multiple back-flips and quickly gets above Unit 07. It then instantly stops doing flips while descending down towards Unit 07 and crashes its feet into its back. The momentum sends both Evas towards the ground while making Unit 07 crash into it, face first.

Evan tries to regain his composure with pain showing on his face as his eyes are closed. After that, he slowly opens his eyes while turning his head towards the right and looks at Unit 03 with irritation brimming. "You son of a bitch. I can't believe how strong you are." He then tries to make Unit 07 get up, but Unit 03 doesn't give him a break.

Unit 03 swiftly thrusts its right arm onto the back of Unit 07's head to keep it from getting up and pins it down. Nero then smiles while Unit 03 tightens its grip on Unit 07. "Remember how I said that Lucas is better than you?"

Evan maintains his focus on Unit 03 with annoyance overflowing. "Yeah... By the way, why the hell do you keep mentioning that retard's name?"

Nero mildly chuckles, closes his eyes and slowly shakes his head in disapproval. After doing that, he looks at Unit 07 again with a calm demeanor. "It's quite simple, really. I want you to always remember how weak you are. Think about it. Lucas took out one of my Eva's arms while you've barely gotten any real damage on it. That's really pathetic especially when you kept going on about how much better you are than him and me." He then smiles.

Evan's eyes widen as he's completely consumed with rage. He then looks at his controls and forcefully pulls on them while screaming, "SHUT THE HELL UP!"

As a result of Evan pulling the controls, Unit 07 quickly gets up while Unit 03 jumps off of it. The brown and red Eva then turns to face Unit 03 as the black Eva had landed at a small distance away. Afterwards, Unit 07 dashes towards Unit 03 while its arms conduct electricity to display that it's about to use the Crusher System. In response to seeing Unit 07's advancement, Nero grins out of amusement while bracing himself and thinks, "I guess all three of us are sensitive."

As soon as Unit 07 reaches Unit 03, it thrust both of its arms towards Unit 03 while making a growling sound. At the same time, Evan yells out while being enraged, "Die, you bastard!"

Unit 03 promptly responds by deploying its A.T. Field and effortlessly blocks both of Unit 07's strikes. Both of Unit 07's arms had also released their shock-wave from the Crusher System and the impact makes a loud, chiming sound. After having his Eva's attack block, Evan's quite baffled while resting his back against the seat and yells out, "What the hell?! There's no way he's THIS strong!"

After hearing Evan's outburst, Nero smiles while tilting his head to the left. "That's where you made your second mistake. You underestimated me when you know you shouldn't." Unit 03 then pulls its left arm back and thrusts it right at Unit 07 while extending out a bit. The black Eva swiftly grabs Unit 07 by the neck and this causes Evan to gasp with his eyes wide open. He then grabs onto his neck with both of his hands with his head thrown back and his focus now on the ceiling. Pain quickly fills Evan's entire being as he's groaning quite a bit due to Unit 03 gradually tightening its grip on Unit 07's neck. Nero then laughs a little and says with a composed tone, "Did you notice that I said underestimating me was your second mistake? Do you want to know what your first mistake was?"

Evan turns his gaze towards Unit 03 with pain still being displayed and says with a strained tone, "Like I give a fuck!"

Nero makes a confident smile. "Well you should because it's what set me off. When you called Rivka a stupid slut and even insulted Asuka... That's when you dug your own grave." He extends out Unit 03's right arm and grabs a hold of Unit 07's neck as well while applying more pressure.

Evan desperately gasps for air with his head tilted upward while starting to panic quite a bit. Then, with determination rising, Evan looks at Unit 03 and screams out, "You can't kill me! No one can kill me! I'm invincible! You aren't better than me! I'm better than you!" After saying that, he viciously grabs onto the controls and makes Unit 07 grab onto Unit 03's hand while trying to make it loosen its grip.

Nero looks at Unit 07 with no emotion being displayed. He then sighs with his eyes closed as he dropped his head down and says underneath his breath, "This entire time I thought you were better than this, Evan. I never thought you would be this bad, but after everything you said, there's no way I could ever forgive you." Nero smiles while lifting up his head to look at Unit 07 with determination gleaming in his eyes. "That's why I'm going to end this!" Unit 03 then lets go of Unit 07's neck while quickly pulling its arms behind itself.

Evan's surprised as he continues to look at Unit 03. He then glares at Unit 03 with annoyance being noted and yells out while making Unit 07 thrust both of its hands towards Unit 03's face, "Try it if you can!"

Unit 03 ducks its head down and successfully dodges Unit 07's strike. After that, the black Eva swiftly thrust both of its hands into Unit 07's stomach with a lot of power behind it while Unit 03 stands up straight. As a result, Unit 07 is suddenly lifted off the ground as Unit 03 holds Unit 07 up above it. Evan then gags while coughing out some blood as he feels intense pain from his synchronization. At the same time, he's bent forward while holding onto his stomach.

Evan grits his teeth with his eyes closed while still holding onto his stomach and says to himself with a strained voice, "Damn... It...! He's... He's too... Strong...!" Evan peers at Unit 03 as anger completely consumes his being. "If only I had the... Damn amplifier...! I so... Would have... Been able to kill him...!"

Nero gives Unit 07 an intense look and then makes Unit 03 forcefully pull its arms in opposite sideways directions. Unit 07 is then split in half, which causes Evan to scream out in pain as both halves of Unit 07 fall to the ground. The lower half ends up crashing in front of Unit 03 while the upper half crashes behind it. After both halves hit the ground, Evan tries his best to maintain consciousness while saying softly as he's faintly looking at Unit 03 from behind, "I... Hate you... Nero..." As he said Nero's name, his eyes become vacant as he then passes out while dropping his head back.

Right after that, Unit 03 turns around to face Unit 07's upper half as Nero looks down at it while proudly smiling. "That's what you get, Evan. You should have never said those terrible things about them." Sympathy then overtakes Nero a little. "You only have yourself to blame for how things turned out." Nero suddenly stops smiling with seriousness showing in his eyes. "Now knowing you, you're probably still alive, but no longer conscious." He then takes a deep breath, shuts his eyes for a moment, re-opens his eyes and says with a sad tone, "I have to finish you off."

Suddenly, Nero's eyes widen as he hears a high pitch sound and then quickly looks around with concern arising. "What the hell is that?" After saying that, he realizes something and instantly looks up above him. He immediately sees something head straight towards him with incredible speed and this causes him to give out a small gasp. Unit 03 then promptly jumps towards its right while barely dodging the object.

As a result, the object crashes into the ground while creating a loud impact that causes a lot of smoke to be formed. The impact of the object even sends both halves of Unit 07 flying at a small distance away while Evan continues to be unconscious. The brown and red Eva then crashes onto the ground again as Unit 03 stands at a small distance away from the smoke. Nero watches the cloud of smoke with concern as it clears. Nero's then shocked by what he sees while torquing his body forward as much as possible. "Is that...! The Lance of Longinus?! But it's suppose to be lost in space!"

After saying that, Nero suddenly hears a weird humming sound, which startles him a little. He then looks up with concern returning and sees that an Eva is slowly descending from the sky while being both in front of the moon's path and right above Unit 03. After several moments pass of watching the Eva descend, Nero lightly smiles with his focus still on the Eva. "So, we finally meet, Unit 06. It's a pleasure to meet you. Or to be more precise, it's a pleasure to meet you... Kaworu Nagisa."

While Unit 06 continues to descend, Kaworu looks down on Unit 03 without any emotion showing on his person as he's wearing an Indigo plugsuit that has a light tint of grey on the upper part of the suit. He then suddenly smirks and says with a calm tone with his head tilted back a little, "Likewise, Nero Ikari. How is Shinji doing?" *Side Note: Unit 06's appearance is the same as the Mark 06 from the Rebuild of Eva movie*

Nero chuckles a little while still focused on Unit 06. "He's alright, I guess. I did give him a hard time before I left, but I know I didn't kill him or anything too severe."

Kaworu smiles out of content as he stops Unit 06 from descending towards Unit 03. "That is good. I would like to see Shinji before making him initiate 4th Impact. But first, I must take care of you. You were originally supposed to be an asset for 4th impact, but now, your existence will only jeopardize what must be done to the Lilin of this world."

Nero raises his left eyebrow while cocking his head slightly to the right with a skeptical expression. "Is that so?"

Kaworu nods and says with a somber tone, "Yes... It is indeed so."

Nero smirks with confidence and straightens his head. "We'll see about that, Kaworu."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Things are starting to get intense. Seriously, look forward to the next episode. I'm going to do everything I can to make it amazing, and thank you all for reading every episode so far. You guys are just plain awesome.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	20. Episode 20

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

This is it. This is the episode that will change everything. To be honest, I actually thought by the time I got to this episode number, I would have either ended this story or I would be wrapping things up in a couple of episodes. It seems like my creativity has expanded to an amount that I did not foresee as possible. I still have a way to go until I'm done, which I think some of you like the fact that I'm not done yet. Well, enough talk. It's time to rock out!

Episode 20: Nero vs. Kaworu

As Nero and Kaworu finally meet for the first time, SEELE's watching from the room that they're usually located in with a lot of interest. This is due to them knowing that the battle between those two is about to begin. Right now, Unit 06 remains in the air while looking down on Unit 03. It can be noted that there's a halo above Unit 06's head. This displays that Unit 06 isn't any ordinary Eva and this obviously concerns Nero.

Nero says softly to himself while still looking up at Unit 06 with a serious stare, "This won't be easy... When Shinji brought everyone back, he brought Kaworu too. Even though he's an angel. That obviously has to do with the fact that he's also human." He then sighs with his head lowered. "He's going to be tough to beat, especially when he can combine his abilities with an Eva." Nero looks up at Unit 06 again with concern in his eyes. "That thought is just plain scary by itself."

Kaworu says with his usual polite tone while looking down on Unit 03 with dullness in his eyes, "Are you ready, Nero. Because there is no avoiding destiny. You are meant to play a great role in 4th Impact, and by trying to deny that role, you created your own destruction. This is the undeniable truth of this world and the creatures that inhabit it."

Nero gives off a skeptical look while tilting his head a bit towards the left. "Is that for a fact? Considering you are Tabris, the angel of freewill, I didn't think you would be bounded by 'Destiny'." Nero chuckles for a brief moment and then says with a hint of amusement, "Especially after refusing your destiny of living forever and causing 3rd Impact."

Kaworu shows no emotion while responding with a cold tone. "Exactly my point. If you deny your destiny, you will cause your own destruction. I went against what I was destined to do, and I suffered the consequences."

Nero smiles with sincerity taking over his person. "But you had no regrets when you did that. You wanted to die to protect something that matter a lot to you. I say, if you're going to defy destiny, do it for what you believe in. In your case, you believed that humanity deserved to live. That's why you sacrificed yourself."

Kaworu's a bit surprised by Nero's words for a moment and then smirks. "This is what intrigues me so much about the Lilin. So many of you rationalize things about the world as if that is truly the way it should be. If you believe in something with all your heart, you do not give up on it and continuously fight for it. I really wish I could be like that."

Nero retorts while joyfully smiling. "Don't sell yourself short. You're human too after all." He chuckles softly.

Kaworu closes his eyes while lowering his head. "That may be true, but I am still an angel and there are obligations that I must uphold." He slowly opens his eyes to gaze at Unit 03 again with sadness arising. "I would really like to be as free as I am meant to be, but at this moment, I can not."

Nero's slightly concerned by what Kaworu said. "Why not? Everyone deserves to do what they please and live their life as they see fit. Why else would God have given us life?"

Unit 06 starts to descend slowly again as Kaworu says with a cold tone, "For us to die. That is why God gave us life."

Suddenly, Unit 06 flies towards Unit 03 with impeccable speed and appears right in front of it in an instant. Nero looks at Unit 06 while being caught of guard by the Eva's instant appearance in front of him. Unit 06 then expands its A.T. Field and displays the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil on it. Right after that, the A.T. Field hits Unit 03 with an immense amount of force and sends the black Eva rolling backwards onto the ground up to a four mile distance away. Unit 03's back then crashes into a large mountain that barely withstood the weight of the Eva.

After several seconds go by, Unit 03 regains its composure while getting back on its feet as it's facing towards the direction Unit 06 is located. The black Eva then quickly sprints towards Unit 06 while Nero passionately yells out with his body leaning forward to push the controls, "If God gave us life just for that, then this world is REALLY messed up!"

Unit 03 reaches Unit 06 and collides into its A.T. Field, head first. Kaworu then gives Unit 03 an emotionless look while calmly stating, "It may be, but that is the world that the Lilin and angels have been born into. Our existence is only justified by what God desires. If God desires for us to live only to die, then God's will is my command."

Nero lightly smiles with confidence brimming as Unit 03 places its hands on Unit 06's A.T. Field. "That's a load of bullshit if you ask me."

A small amount of surprise appears on Kaworu's expression as he pulls his head back a bit. "Why do you say that?"

Nero softly laughs with a slightly skeptical look. "Do I really need to repeat what I said earlier? Remember, you went against destiny. Even though you died for doing that, you still proved that you're not bound by God's will like you're trying to make out."

That statement from Nero causes Kaworu to give out serious glare. Afterwards, Unit 06 expands its A.T. Field again to hit Unit 03, but fortunately, the black Eva holds its ground this time while Nero yells out with a cheerful smile, "What's wrong?! You didn't respond to that one! Can I assume that I'm right?!"

Kaworu ignores Nero's question as Unit 06 instantly disappears from in front of Unit 03 while leaving a small cloud of smoke behind. As a result, Unit 03 stumbles forward into the smoke as Nero then frantically looks around while regaining his composure. At the same time, Unit 03 stands up straight while Nero says under his breath, "Damn...! Unit 06 sure is fast! Where the heck did it go?!"

After saying that, Nero's eyes widen when he hears something familiar and quickly looks behind himself out of the corner of his right eye. He then sees the Lance of Longinus heading straight towards him and this startles him.

Unit 03 promptly ducks forward and barely dodges the lance. At the moment Unit 03 dodged, Unit 06 appears right above the black Eva and then launches itself down towards Unit 03. Kaworu's Eva then grabs Unit 03's head from behind with its right hand. Afterwards, Unit 06 forcefully makes Unit 03 crash down onto the ground, face first.

The sheer force of the impact causes the ground to crack and break a part while Unit 06 pins Unit 03 down with its right hand. Due to the impact, Nero's body uncontrollably torques forward. He then regains some composure and hurriedly turns his head to the left to look behind himself with irritation arising. "Crap..."

After Nero had said that, Unit 06 expands its A.T. Field again and it crashes right into the back of Unit 03. This results in the ground breaking even more and Unit 03 being buried into the ground. Meanwhile, Nero screams out in pain with his eyes closed and his head cocked back. Unit 06 then releases its grip on Unit 03's head and quickly jumps backwards with blinding speed. It lands in front of where the Lance of Longinus had landed while skidding to face away from the downed Unit 03 to look at the lance.

Unit 06 picks up the lance as Kaworu looks behind himself afterwards by turning his head towards the right without showing any emotion. "If you do not mind me ignorantly saying, I would wager that you are wondering why you are losing to me when your synchronization is over 300%, correct?"

Nero gives off an irritated look as he's now staring downward. He then closes his eyes while chuckling and makes Unit 03 gradually get up from under the ground with rubble falling off his Eva's body. After that, Unit 03 turns to face Unit 06 as Nero smiles in amusement with his eyes fixed on Unit 06's back. "You read my mind."

Kaworu smirks while Unit 06 turns around to face Unit 03 with the Lance of Longinus firmly held in its right hand. He then calmly says with his eyes focused on Unit 03, "The reason why I am winning is quite simple. It is because I am combining my own A.T. Field with the A.T. Field of Unit 06. This results in the creation of an A.T. Field that surpasses the rest."

Nero makes a dumbfounded expression while tilting his head a bit towards the right. "Is there a specific number you can give me so I can know what I'm dealing with?" He then lightly smiles.

Kaworu sighs while dropping his head down with his eyes closed. "You Lilin always need to put everything in some kind of form for you to know that it exists. Just like you need proof to know if there is a God." He then gazes at Unit 03 again with coldness resonating. "You should just accept things as they are stated without questioning it."

Nero suddenly starts laughing for a moment, rests his back against the seat with his head tilted back and covers his face with his left hand. He then stops laughing, places his hand back on the controls while leaning forward and peers up at Unit 06 with a cheerful smile. "But that's one of the great things about being a Lilin! Our curiosity is what makes us who we are! We always want to create proof for things that we don't understand, so we obviously question those things and find an answer! It doesn't even matter if we end up being wrong because being wrong just motivates us even more to find the right answer!"

Kaworu's briefly stunned by what Nero had just said, and after that, he gives out a look of admiration towards Unit 03. "You really are an interesting person, Nero Ikari. You have so much confidence in what you say. It is hard to believe that you and Shinji are brothers."

Nero chuckles while folding his arms with his back planted on his seat. "Well one of us has to be confident, right? But don't count Shinji out 'cause he's starting to develop some confidence. He just needs the help of his friends to achieve that." He then suddenly realizes something as curiosity over takes him. After that, Nero smirks while looking away from Unit 06 for a moment and then looks back at it with sincerity showing. "Actually, you can be a big help to Shinji and the others."

Kaworu's slightly confused by what Nero just said while leaning forward a little. "What are you talking about?"

Skepticism returns as Nero slants his head towards the right. "Don't play dumb, Kaworu. It doesn't suit you." He then laughs softly while unfolding his arms to grab onto the control and leans forward. "You obviously still care about my brother. Your prior actions prove that. You even said that you would like to see Shinji, which adds onto the fact that you still care." Nero chuckles a little bit and then curiosity comes forth as he says with a caring tone, "So how about it? Why don't you come with me and join NERV?"

Kaworu's completely stunned by Nero's offer while leaning his back against his seat. Afterwards, he regains his composure with sadness overtaking his expression as he lowers his head. "I can not do that. I am obligated to be the cause of humanity's destruction."

Nero says with sincerity arising, "Oh, come on! You're the angel of free will for heaven's sake! You should be able to do whatever your heart desires! Just like any ordinary person!"

Kaworu quickly looks up at Unit 03 with shock showing and thinks, "Just like... Any ordinary person..."

Nero promptly shows determination while passionately saying, "You're human, Kaworu! You can make any decision that you want! Destiny doesn't truly control us until it's our time to die!" He then puts one hand over the other and places them on his chest. "Death is the only unavoidable destiny for all humans, and like a human, you can die!"

Having said that, Nero moves his hands apart and places them on his lap while leaning forward even more. "Like a human, you can live, and like a human, you don't need to do anything that you don't want to do! Just do what your heart tells you that you want and what you need!"

Kaworu's momentarily shocked by what Nero said. Seriousness then overcomes him as he says with a cold tone, "I would very much like to believe that, Nero Ikari. I really would, but I can not accept your rationalization."

Nero narrows his eyes a little out of concern. "Why not?"

Kaworu responds with a composed tone. "Because destiny is not as you say. It does exist and it determines the fate of every living thing. It is never wrong. The reason I was brought back is because my destiny is to destroy humanity. I was foolish in trying to change my destiny and this is my punishment."

Nero smirks with a hint of amusement being displayed as he grabs onto the controls with both hands. "That's just an excuse. You're just afraid to try to live your own life and be human. That's why you keep going back to your so-called 'Destiny'." He chuckles while pulling his head back a bit as it's slightly tilted to the right. "By the way, you didn't come back because of your destiny. You came back thanks to Shinji."

After saying that, Nero straightens his head while resting his back against the seat. "Destiny had nothing to do with it because destiny had stated that no matter what, 3rd Impact was going to wipe out humanity, but it didn't because of Shinji."

Kaworu grits his teeth while being mildly irritated. After that, he yells out with a fierce tone that's uncommon for Kaworu, "That is enough! No matter how hard you try, you will not convince me or change your fate! For going against destiny, you must perish, Nero Ikari!"

A small amount of surprise is shown on Nero's person due to Kaworu's tone as he's smiling. Afterwards, he gives out a short laugh with determination gleaming from his eyes. "If that's the case, so be it!" He then swings his left arm to be outstretched towards his left side with confidence overflowing. "But I'll prove you wrong, and I'll do it by defeating you!" Nero quickly grabs onto the control with his left hand while maintaining his focus on Unit 03. "If destiny is as you say, then there's no way I can win, right?!"

Kaworu promptly retorts with a cold tone. "It is as you just said. There is no way you can win."

Nero responds with confidence increasing. "Then let's bet on it! If you win and I'm still alive, I'll do what I'm so-called 'Destined' to do!" He then points at himself with his right thumb while having it near his chin. "But if I win..." He pauses for a moment and points at Unit 06 with his right arm extended forward while his hand is opened. "Then you have to join NERV!"

That declaration from Nero causes Kaworu to be very surprised at first. He then composes himself while seriousness takes the place of surprise and says with his usual, polite tone, "You really do not like to give up, do you?"

Nero grins while grabbing onto the control with his right hand again and says with a modest tone with his eyes turned towards the right to look away from Unit 06, "Well... I did try giving up before, but it seems like there's always something keeping me from doing that." Some curiosity then immediately takes over out of nowhere as Nero returns his focus towards Unit 06 with his left eyebrow slightly raised. "So, what do you say, Kaworu? Do we have a deal?"

Kaworu smirks while thinking, "He sure is not like Shinji..." He closes his eyes while slightly lowering his head and responds to Nero's question. "I shall consider it."

Nero smiles while leaning forward again with determination returning. "That's good enough for me." Unit 03 then instantly dashes towards Unit 06 with a good amount of speed. "But don't think for a second that I plan on losing to you!"

Kaworu nods with a cold expression while preparing himself to come into contact with Unit 03. "I would never assume such a thing from you... Nero Ikari."

Then, the scene changes to focus on Asuka as she's lying on Nero's bed. The reason for this is since she's no longer with Shinji, she and he decided that they would no longer sleep in the same room together. As an obvious result, Mari moved into Shinji's room to be closer to him. At first, Misato wasn't too sure if it was a good idea due to all the perverted things Mari had once hinted that she would do with Shinji if they were together. But fortunately, she was reassured by both Mari and Shinji that nothing extreme would happen between them though. This is because Mari's satisfied with the fact that she's finally with Shinji.

With the decision of moving out of Shinji's room, Asuka made the choice to take over Nero's room. Misato had questioned this as well, but decided to let it go since she didn't see any real harm in it. Right now, Asuka doesn't have the brain-wave transmitters on. She's wearing a red tank-top that she normally wears to go to sleep in and denim cut-off shorts. It can be noted that the room has a bunch of boxes that hold Asuka's stuff since she has an immense amount.

In the meantime, Pen-Pen's sleeping behind Asuka since he's accustomed to being in that room from the moment Nero cleaned it out. Although, it's still unknown to everyone why Pen-Pen enjoys sleeping there so much. At this very moment, the time is 8:26 AM in Tokyo-03 as this is occurring at the same time that Nero's fighting against Kaworu while the time over in Canada is 7:26 PM due to the time zone difference.

As Asuka lies on the bed while being on her left side, she's holding onto the cellular Nero left behind with her left hand. She's also holding onto his music player in her right hand as she's listening to some of his music. Sadness can be seen on Asuka's face due to her seeing that all the phone numbers in Nero's cellular have been deleted. This had killed any hope of her finding a way of contacting him.

Afterwards, Asuka puts the cellular down on the bed in front of her while turning herself to face towards the ceiling. She then looks at Nero's music player while holding it up in front of her as she spaces out a bit. After a few seconds pass by, Asuka whispers to herself while listening to a song called "Everything Must Go." By Taking Back Sunday, "He has an interesting taste in music. I actually kind of like the rock songs, but he has WAY too many classical songs. I never really liked classical music that much..." She then pauses for a moment and happily smiles. "But I can make an exception."

Asuka giggles while switching the song to play "Pachelbel's Canon in D Major". This song causes her to be filled with sadness while losing her smile and puts her hand down on top of her stomach to look at the ceiling. She then says with a somber tone, "I really hope that he's alright, and that he'll actually come back. I said all those things about how sure I was, but how sure WAS I when I said all that stuff?"

Suddenly, Asuka realizes something and that causes her to be filled with confidence while smiling again. "What am I talking about?! He had to be crazy not to come back! He knows I'm waiting for him!" Concern quickly takes over as Asuka says with uncertainty in her voice, "Right...?"

With that question being the last thing said by Asuka, the focus returns to the battle between Nero and Kaworu. They're currently at a stand-off due to Unit 03 having collided into Unit 06's A.T. Field as the ground begins to rumble. Unit 03 does its best to break through the A.T. Field with both hands placed near each other and on the A.T. Field.

Determination continues to emit from Nero's face as Unit 03 and Unit 06 are face to face. "You're really tough, Kaworu! For me not to be able to break through your Eva's A.T. Field while I'm over 300% is incredible! This is really starting to get exciting!"

Kaworu tilts his back while being a bit surprised and says softly to himself, "I can not believe that he can say such a thing. His life is at stake, and yet, he can talk as if he has no fear at all." He then leans forward with seriousness establishing itself again. "He must think that it is impossible for him to lose... But unfortunately for him, he is mistaken." Unit 06 extends out its left arm towards Unit 03 and forcefully sends the black Eva flying with its A.T. Field as some rubble is lifted off the ground due to the strength of the A.T. Field.

Nero pulls on the controls while being in mid-air with a fierce look showing. Through his effort, he's able to successfully make Unit 03 land on its feet and then gives out a sigh of relief with his head lowered as his eyes are closed. Afterwards, he looks up and quickly gives out a small gasp as he sees that Unit 06 is about to throw the Lance of Longinus at him. At the same time, Unit 06 has its right arm extended out in the position to throw the lance and swiftly takes a few steps forward while pulling its arm back. It then throws the lance at Unit 03 and heads towards it with remarkable speed.

In response, Nero panics a bit and then makes Unit 03 jump to its left to dodge. After seeing the black Eva dodge the lance, Unit 06 lunges forward to fly with the same impeccable speed it has been displaying since the beginning and quickly gets in front of where the lance was heading. It effortlessly catches the lance with its left hand and elegantly turns its attention towards Unit 03. After doing that, it snaps its head towards Unit 03 and appears right behind it.

Meanwhile, Nero had just made Unit 03 land on the ground after having dodge the lance the first time. He then promptly looks behind himself by turning his head towards the right and is startled to see Unit 06 right behind him. In the meantime, Kaworu maintains an emotionless expression while leaning his back against the seat. "It's already over, Nero Ikari." Unit 06 then jabs the lance towards Unit 03's lower back region.

Nero's eyes widen briefly, but quickly relax as he smirks with confidence brimming. "Not yet, Kaworu." Unit 03 quickly bends forward and produces a shock-wave towards the ground with the help of its A.T. Field. This results in Unit 03 being sent flying up into the sky and barely dodges the attack. After having missed, Kaworu's moderately surprised by the unexpected way Unit 03 dodge. He then looks up and sees that the black Eva is right above him while it starts to descend towards Unit 06. As Unit 03 descends, Nero smiles while happily yelling out, "Let's see if we can finally get him, Bardiel!"

Kaworu pulls his body forward while being quite shocked. His expression's then taken over by emptiness as Unit 06 makes its A.T. Field appear right above it while blocking the path of Unit 03. This doesn't discourage Nero though as Unit 03 lands on top of Unit 06's A.T. Field while being on all fours. Right after that, Nero chuckles with excitement greatly arising. "Looks like we couldn't get him that time!" Unit 03 then pulls both of its arms back and thrusts them onto Unit 06's A.T. Field, which results in a loud impact that causes the ground to tear apart with rubble flying everywhere and crashing into near by mountains.

Curiosity starts to rise from within Kaworu's being as he says to himself in a low volume, "Why does he continue to try when he should have realized that his efforts are futile?" His eyes then widen as he sees Unit 06's A.T. Field begin to crack a little. This causes him to let out a small gasp while leaning back in surprise and then leans forward again with concern showing. "That should not be possible."

Nero notices the small cracks in the A.T. Field and smiles out of content. He then makes Unit 03 unleash a barrage of strikes with each hand, one after the other, in the attempt to break through Unit 06's A.T. Field as he yells out with determination, "Come on! We're getting to him! He won't be able to hold on for long!"

Irritation starts to consume Kaworu for a moment as he sees Unit 03's onslaught continue. Afterwards, Unit 06's A.T. Field suddenly expands out again and sends Unit 03 flying once again towards the area that's north of Unit 06. Unit 03 then lands on the ground while being on all fours and gives Unit 06 an intense glare while letting out a horrific roar.

After witnessing Unit 03 successful landing, Kaworu shows some concern while saying to himself, "It seems that those two work well together. Nero is using the natural capabilities of Bardiel without needing to transcend to its true form." He grins while nodding to himself. "He really is the most interesting Lilin that I have ever met. But he is not Shinji, so there is no possibility I would fall for him." He chuckles a little.

Nero stares Unit 06 down while momentarily losing his smile and thinks, "I really have no clue if I'm actually giving him any real trouble. He's most likely holding back." He chuckles while quickly cracking his neck by tilting his head towards the right. Nero then leans forward a bit more while shouting out with a joyful smile, "Screw it! There's no point in worrying about it! The only way to beat me is by him giving it his all! So one way or the other, I'll see what he's truly made of!"

With those words from Nero, Unit 03 instantly launches itself into the air towards Unit 06. In response, Unit 06 quickly pulls the lance back and immediately throws it at Unit 03 while it's still in the air. Nero gives out a loud laugh after seeing the lance head towards him and then yells out, "That sure was predictable, Kaworu!"

Unit 03 swiftly turns its body to face towards the sky while being in mid-air and lets out a shock-wave to push it down towards the ground to dodge the lance. It does a back flip as it lands on its feet with its head pointing downward. Kaworu's caught off guard quite a bit due to him not expecting Unit 03 doing that. Meanwhile, the Lance of Longinus crashes down onto the ground at a pretty far distance away behind Unit 03.

After gaining some composure, Unit 03 snaps its head up to glare at Unit 06 while letting out a soft growling sound. Right after that, the black Eva dashes towards Unit 06 while grunting with each step it takes and reaches Unit 06 within mere seconds. As Kaworu watches Unit 03 head towards him, he maintains most of his composure while cocking his head back a little bit with a calm demeanor. Unit 03 then thrusts its left arm towards Unit 06, which is blocked by the Eva's A.T. Field again. This doesn't stop Nero though as he quickly makes Unit 03 strike at the A.T. Field with its right hand after burying its feet into the ground.

As this happens, Kaworu thinks while remaining calm, "He is determined to penetrate Unit 06's A.T. Field. He must believe that once he does that, he'll be able to defeat me." He then narrows his eyes while being quite serious and softly says, "That won't happen, Nero. You may have cracked the A.T. Field earlier, but that only has taught me not to hold back anymore against you." With that said, Unit 06 swiftly jumps towards the right.

Nero's concerned by Unit 06's sudden action while making Unit 03 take a few steps back and glances towards the direction that Unit 06 went. He immediately sees that Unit 06 isn't there and this causes him to look around for Unit 06's location in a frantic manner while saying underneath his breath, "Where is he? I seriously can't take my eyes off Kaworu for a second." Nero then realizes something, hurriedly looks up above him and then is shocked to see that Unit 06's face is right in front of his Eva's face.

Unit 06 is currently upside down while having both of its arms extended backwards as it's about to descend onto Unit 03. It then does exactly that while thrusting both of its hands on the black Eva's face and the momentum sends it crashing down to the ground. This results in a huge impact being created that tears up the ground. After the impact subsides, Unit 06 holds onto Unit 03's face while doing a hand-stand on it with its eyes locked on Unit 03.

In the meantime, Nero's back is now against the seat with his head resting on it as his eyes are shut. It can be seen on his face that he's in a lot of pain due to that last attack. He then slowly opens his left eye while gazing at Unit 06 as it's still doing the hand-stand. After seeing that, Nero opens his other eye while being quite annoyed and says with an exhausted tone, "That's not cool..."

Having said that, Nero immediately lowers his head and leans forward to grab onto the controls. He then peers up at Unit 06 while getting more annoyed. "Get the hell off me!" Unit 03 promptly expands its A.T. Field and makes Unit 06 get off of it.

Unit 06 elegantly flies up into the sky and levitates at a pretty far distance away from Unit 03. As Kaworu looks down at Unit 03 with his back against the seat again, he says with a vague tone, "I am impressed that you and Unit 03 survived that. You must have deployed its A.T. Field right before I had come into contact to soften the blow. Although it did not hold up that much."

Unit 03 slowly gets up on its feet while slouching forward as Nero stares at Unit 06 with annoyance still being displayed. He then takes a deep breath with his eyes closed for a moment to calm himself down. Afterwards, Nero looks at Unit 06 with a faint smile while whispering, "We won't be able to hold on much longer if we don't give him everything, Bardiel. It's bad enough that it's Kaworu piloting that Eva, but for us to be at the disadvantage of it flying while we're stuck on the ground... Well, I don't need to say much more, do I?"

Bardiel communicates with Nero through his mind and responds with his usual menacing tone while sounding a bit aggravated. "No freaking duh! But I'm still a bit pissed that I couldn't destroy more things before having to fight my little brother!"

Nero's immediately filled with curiosity while raising his right eyebrow. "I didn't think you would refer him as that. I thought the angels didn't care to associate each other in that manner."

Bardiel groans a little while getting a bit more aggravated. "In a way your right, but that doesn't mean I'll ignore that we are connected through being the children of Adam!"

Nero responds while narrowing his eyes a bit with skepticism showing. "So... Do you think you'll have a hard time fighting your brother with the intent to kill?" He softly laughs to himself.

Bardiel shouts out with his aggravation growing, "Are you high?! Of course I won't let that get in the way! I'm not like you stupid Lilins that let your emotions get the best of you! All I care about is destroying things!" He laughs in a maniacal manner.

Nero smiles while dropping his head down with his eyes closed. "If you say so." He then opens his eyes to look up at Unit 06 with determination radiating. "Shall we release the restraints?"

Bardiel yells out with impatience being obvious, "Do it already! You don't need to ask me! I'm itching just to destroy stuff! I could care less if you're going to be at risk of losing yourself! That would be better for me!" He laughs in a maniacal manner again.

Nero slowly gets up on the seat while looking downward for a moment. He then looks up at the ceiling with a cheerful smile. "Yeah, whatever. If I have to give up my body to take Kaworu down, then so be it. I can't afford to lose. Not just because I want to protect Shinji and the others, but because Kaworu needs to get away from Keel's grasp. This is for his happiness too."

After that, Nero shuts his eyes for several seconds and then opens them. It's revealed that his eyes have turned dark blue as confidence gleams from those eyes. Suddenly, Unit 03 releases an Anti-A.T. Field that completely destroys the surface of the ground that's under and around it up to reaching Unit 06. In response, Kaworu smirks while watching Unit 03 and says softly to himself, "So, you finally decided to use your trump card, Nero Ikari."

Nero bends forward while staring Unit 06 down with a slightly demented expression. At the same time, the crosses on his plugsuit light up with a silver glow while the mark on his back shines through the plugsuit just like last time. Nero then yells with determination overflowing, "We have to give it everything we got, Bardiel!" After that, he tightly clenches his hands while straightening his posture. "It's all or nothing!"

Suddenly, Unit 03's right arm's armor starts to crack and then shatters. Right after that, the arm turns into the silver A.T. Field arm while the large silver wings extend out from its wrists. Kaworu continues to watch Unit 03 go through its change with an emotionless expression. "This will be quite a challenge, but no matter how hard Nero tries, he can not change his fate." Concern then overtakes Kaworu's face a bit as he narrows his eyes. "I really do wonder if he has no regrets for the choice that he is making."

Nero's voice promptly comes through the intercom and says with a carefree tone. "I can hear you! And to answer your question, I have no regrets!"

Kaworu's a little surprised due to hearing Nero's outburst. He then appears on Nero's main screen with concern resurfacing and says in his usual polite tone, "How could you not have any regrets? You are relinquishing your own life for those who will eventually perish anyway."

Nero sincerely smiles while lifting up his right arm towards Kaworu's image, which has the simulated wings. Unit 03 had mimicked his movement due to the high sync ratio that Nero has achieved and points its arm towards Unit 06. "That may be true, but I'll make sure they get to live a long life before that happens."

Kaworu gives Nero a cold stare while bending forward. "Is that the reason you pilot? To protect them?"

Nero raises his left eyebrow while lowering his right arm with his head slightly tilted to the right as curiosity can be noted on his person. "That's a good question." He then places his left hand on his waist, looks up at the ceiling and positions himself to stand sideways with a cheerful demeanor taking over. "I never really thought of why I pilot Eva. I had no real reason for piloting in the beginning."

Kaworu's momentarily stunned and then plants his back against the seat while being a bit confused. "Are you honestly telling me that all this time, you had no reason for piloting until you became friends with Shinji and the others?"

Nero chuckles while focusing his attention on Kaworu's image and nods. "The reason I piloted before was to pay Keel back for taking me out of the streets, but I never considered that to be much of a reason. I actually just did it because someone had to and I didn't mind." He joyfully smirks. "But thanks to the friends I have made, I decided to protect them. That by itself is a hell of a reason for me to pilot and willingly give my life for."

Kaworu continues to be a bit confused due to a small lack of understanding what Nero's saying and then suddenly smiles lightly as he nods at Nero. "If that is what you really desire, then I will fight you with everything I have. Just do not forget our agreement."

Curiosity starts to fill Nero's person while tilting his head towards the left a bit. "Agreement?" His eyes then widen from remembering what Kaworu's talking about. "Ohhh, you mean our bet?!" Nero leans towards the screen a little with a content smile appearing. "So you accept, huh?"

Kaworu sharply nods with confidence emitting from him. "Indeed, but still do not expect you being victorious. As I said multiple times already, there is no changing destiny."

Nero straightens his posture to completely face Kaworu. "Yeah, yeah. You really need to come up with something else to say. You constantly repeating the same thing over and over is kind of starting to get on my nerves."

Kaworu smiles in response as his image instantly disappears from Nero's main screen. After that, Unit 06 suddenly flies towards Unit 03 with outstanding speed and then turns its direction towards its left. Seeing this causes Nero to smirk and quickly turns his eyes to look towards his right. At that very moment, Unit 06 appears right where Nero's looking at while planting its feet on the ground as it's about to strike Unit 03 with its left hand.

In response, Unit 03's A.T. Field quickly appears and successfully blocks the attack. As result, Kaworu makes a serious expression while looking at Unit 03 and says to himself, "His A.T. Field is much stronger after reaching 400%. I need the Lance of Longinus to be able to penetrate it."

Kaworu glances towards the left, which is the direction where the lance is located, and sees that the blades of the lance are planted into the ground. Unit 06 then suddenly separates itself from Unit 03 while jumping up into the air and heads towards the lance. Nero responds by calmly turning his head towards the right to follow Unit 06's movement. He then notices that the lance is at a small distance away behind him and smiles. After that, Unit 03 quickly turns to face the direction that the lance is located and dashes towards it.

Due to how fast Unit 03's running, a trail of smoke is left behind while Unit 06 is the first to reach the lance and stands on the right side of it. Unit 06 then grabs a hold of the lance and it's about to pull the lance out of the ground until Unit 03 appears right in front of it while being on the other side of the lance. This startles Kaworu a little as he looks up at Unit 03 with his head slightly pulled back. Nero then states with confidence brimming, "Looks like you don't have the speed advantage anymore!"

Having said that, Nero lifts up his right arm towards Unit 06, which Unit 03 imitates, and gets ready to release the Angel Beam from its A.T. Field arm in the same way it did against Unit 01. This obviously involves the blue electricity conducting all over the arm and wings.

Kaworu panics a little and then desperately makes Unit 06 launch itself into the air while taking the lance with it. Unit 06 stops above the black Eva while maintaining some distance and faces towards it with a firm hold on the lance. While doing that, Kaworu looks at Unit 03 and his eyes immediately widen out of disbelief as he sees that Unit 03's aiming at him. "He completely followed my movement!"

Meanwhile, Unit 03 maintains its aim on Unit 06 for a brief moment and then sends out the Angel Beam. It heads towards Unit 06 with remarkable speed as Unit 06 responds by deploying its A.T. Field. It manages to hold up against the Angel Beam, but it came really close to shattering until the beam had stopped.

That fact worries Kaworu quite a bit as he thinks, "I did not expect this. By transcending Unit 03 into Bardiel's true form, they are now strong enough to almost penetrate Unit 06's A.T. Field. Even though my own A.T. Field is added into it."

As Kaworu was thinking to himself, Unit 03 slightly slouches down and lunges itself towards Unit 06. Within a second, Unit 03 appears right in front of Unit 06 while they're both in the air and quickly goes for another Angel Beam aimed at Unit 06's head. Fortunately for Kaworu, Unit 06 dodges the beam by swaying its upper body towards its left and then descends towards the ground while passing right beside the black Eva.

Unit 06 elegantly lands on the ground below Unit 03 and pulls the lance back with its right hand. It then focuses on Unit 03 and throws the lance straight towards the black Eva's back as Nero glances behind himself with seriousness being displayed. After that, Unit 03 quickly turns itself towards its right side while aiming its A.T. Field arm and lets out another Angel Beam to intercept the lance.

Kaworu watches in disbelief as the Lance of Longinus is at a stand-off with the Angel Beam. Suddenly, there's a small explosion that comes from the lance and beam. This results in the lance crashing into the ground that's to the left of Unit 06, and after the explosion, Unit 03 lands on the ground while facing Unit 06 from a decent distance away.

Nero watches Unit 06 with confidence while his hands are placed behind his head as his back is resting on the seat. "Although it was a tie, I still feel like we're behind, Bardiel. The Lance of Longinus can't be destroyed, so as long as Kaworu has it, we're still in danger."

Bardiel retorts with an agitated tone. "Then let's just take the lance and use it against him! It's as simple as that!"

Nero slowly shakes his head in disagreement while maintaining his focus on Unit 06. "I highly doubt that being as simple as you think considering who we're fighting. Even if he were to throw it, we can't concern ourselves with trying to catch or retrieve it. That'll leave us vulnerable to Kaworu's next attack, and then we'll be screwed." He smirks out of amusement.

Bardiel groans a little from annoyance. "If you haven't noticed, he can't get through our A.T. Field! There's nothing to worry about!"

Nero sighs while lowering his head with his eyes closed for a moment. He then lifts up his head to look at Unit 06 with seriousness in his eyes. "Since I can't convince you that Kaworu's still a huge threat with words, I'll just have to show you exactly why I'm worried." Nero slowly lifts his right arm up towards the ceiling while putting his left arm down.

At that exact moment, both the simulated wings on his wrist and the A.T. Field wings start to dissipate while starting to create the A.T. Sphere. Kaworu's eyes narrow with a fierce look taking over. "So, that is the condensing of Unit 03's A.T. Field into an orb Keel told me about." He then smirks without losing his fierce look. "It is remarkable. To use that, he must put himself at the point where he will lose his humanity. That means he is planning on ending it."

After saying that, Kaworu leans forward with determination arising. Unit 06 then swiftly grabs onto the lance with its left hand and slowly levitates off the ground. Right after that, Unit 06 flies towards Unit 03 with the same speed it has been displaying since the beginning while the ground underneath it breaks apart quite a bit as a result of the intense speed from Unit 06.

Intensity fills Nero's expression with his eyes widening as he sees Unit 06 head towards him. He then yells out right when the A.T. Sphere completely forms, "Now!"

With that cry from Nero, Unit 06 reaches Unit 03 while thrusting the lance towards the black Eva's chest. In response, Unit 03 pulls its A.T. Field arm down towards Unit 06 while maintaining the A.T. Sphere on its palm. Both the A.T. Sphere and the Lance of Longinus collide into each other at point-blank distance. As a result, an enormous impact is created followed by a silver explosion that completely engulfs both Evas while destroying everything in its path.

This includes the 4th Branch's facility, but fortunately for SEELE and many of their personnel, they had evacuated in multiple cargo planes and a jet, having predicted that this would happen. Keel's currently in the jet as he's looking down at the explosion with SEELE # 2 sitting to his right. He then gives SEELE # 2 a stern look while saying, "Do you have confirmation on Evan?"

SEELE # 2 firmly nods with calmness noted. "Yes. Our recovery team was able to retrieve him and Unit 07 without being noticed by Nero. They're in Cargo Plane # 6."

Keel nods back at him while being quite pleased. "Good. We'll consider this a personal lost since we now have to relocate. Other than that, I have no doubt that Tabris will be victorious."

SEELE # 2's concerned by what Keel said and leans towards him a little. "Are you sure? How do you know that either one of those two survived the explosion? They were very close to each other."

Keel smirks with a hint of confidence. "Because Unit 06 isn't like the other Evas. It won't fall as long as Tabris is being serious."

As Keel and the others make their escape, the explosion dies down. After that, it's revealed that both Unit 03 and Unit 06 had survived the explosion while still standing. Unfortunately though, Unit 03's entire body, although still in one piece, has received far more damage than Unit 06 with melted plates being obvious on its body. As a matter of fact, it appears that Unit 06 managed to come out of that last confrontation almost unscathed while Unit 03's in such terrible condition that it has reverted back to its normal form. This includes its right arm turning back into an ordinary arm since it wasn't destroyed. The arm had just transformed into an A.T. Field arm without needing to be lost.

Nero's slouched forward a bit with exhaustion showing as he pants with his eyes closed. His plugsuit shows that the crosses are no longer shinning and the cross-shaped mark on his back is no longer shinning through the suit. After a few seconds, Nero straightens his posture, looks at Unit 06 and reveals that his eyes have gone back to their normal color. "I told you, Bardiel. We can't underestimate him." He smiles as his eyes gleam with excitement.

Then, Nero has a flash of memory that reveals the reason why Unit 06 barely has any damage. Its A.T. Field was able to minimize the damage while Unit 06 had shattered Unit 03's A.T. Field with the Lance of Longinus. This had eliminated any form of protection for Unit 03, so it took the explosion head on. After remembering that, Nero continues to smile with excitement greatly increasing as he grits his teeth while still panting. "You're really amazing, Kaworu."

Kaworu calmly smiles as he's staring at Unit 03 while Unit 06 maintains its grip on the lance with its left hand. "I am very impressed, Nero Ikari. You managed to survive." Sadness then fills his eyes as he leans a bit more forward while losing his smile. "Unfortunately for you, this fight is over. You no longer have anything to use against me, and you're exhausted from using your trump card. Am I correct?"

Nero nods in response to what Kaworu said through the intercom while heavily breathing. "Yeah... I'll admit it. I'm at my limit. Having synchronized... With Unit 03 to this point... And using my ace in the hole... Left me on the border of losing myself." He briefly pauses and takes a deep breath with his head lowered.

After doing that, Nero snaps his head up and shouts out with determination, "But I'm not going to give up just yet! As long as I'm breathing, I'll keep fighting!" He then drops down to sit on his seat and firmly grabs onto the controls. Unit 03 instantly jumps high into the sky while doing a front flip and heads straight towards Unit 06 with Nero passionately yelling.

Kaworu's consumed with sadness as Unit 03 is right above him. "If that is what you wish."

Having said that, Kaworu makes Unit 06 pull the lance completely back as it's leaning backwards. It then throws the lance with as much force as possible at Unit 03. Nero's quickly in shock as he sees the lance head towards him due to knowing that he won't be able to dodge in time, nor be saved by his Eva's A.T. Field. Right after that, Unit 03 is struck in the stomach and the pure force of the lance sends the black Eva flying up into the sky with outstanding speed.

After several minutes of soaring through the sky pass by, Unit 03 reaches the Earth's atmosphere, and as this happens, Kaworu peers up at the sky with an emotionless expression. He then closes his eyes once he loses sight of Unit 03, lowers his head and says with a somber tone, "Farewell... Nero Ikari."

In the meantime, Unit 03 continues its way through the Earth's atmosphere and even passes through its final layer. It promptly leaves the Earth's orbit and heads straight towards the moon, and once it reaches the moon, it's back crashes into the moon's surface while causing a large crater to be made. Unit 03's now pinned to the ground by the Lance of Longinus as the black Eva suddenly shuts down while lying motionless with its head down. As Unit 03 faces down towards the Earth, Nero's passed out inside the entry plug with his entire body resting on the seat.

Then, out of nowhere, a female voice says with a caring tone, "Wake up, Nero. You can't die. You have to keep the promise you made to Rivka. You have to keep fighting for what you believe in. You have to fight to be happy. You need to continue on living to be with all of them. Do it for the people who you love. Do it for you, and do it for me. I gave you that name because I knew you could handle all the pain this world offers. You represent strength. You have to be powerful and strong to protect your brother, and to protect the people who matter to you." She then says with a passionate tone, "Please... Wake up, my beautiful boy!"

With that cry, Nero begins to stir and slowly opens his eyes with exhaustion resonating. After that, he says with a confused tone as he's staring at the ceiling, "Mother...?" He then leans forward while grabbing onto his stomach with both hands due to the pain he felt from the synchronization as his head's lowered. With some composure returning, Nero slowly smiles and shuts his eyes for a moment. "Hey, Bardiel. Are you still alive?"

Bardiel sharply responds with an irritated tone. "Of course, I am! But that shit still hurt like hell!"

Nero smirks. "Yeah, I agree." After saying that, he makes a somber expression while looking in front of himself as his vision starts to become blurry. He then shuts his eyes again and says with a calm tone, "Hey... Do you think we can still fight?"

Bardiel gives out a short, sarcastic laugh. "As if there's a point! We can't beat Tabris! He's too strong with that Eva!"

Nero casually opens his eyes while spacing out and thinks, "He has a point. Anyway, I'm about to lose myself because of the high synchronization I've been maintaining with Bardiel, and with all the injuries I've taken for the past week, I would probably die soon too." He gazes up at the ceiling while his vision continues to be blurry and firmly asks, "What if I give you complete control?"

Bardiel retorts with a surprised tone. "Are you serious?! You would actually let me take over?!"

A light smile appears on Nero's face as he nods. "Yeah... My ego is starting to disappear anyway. I can feel it." He then places his hands on the seat while maintaining his focus on the ceiling. "How about it? It's what you wanted. The ability of being in control so you can destroy as much as you like without being held down by me."

Bardiel yells out of joy, "Hell yeah! It's about time I get to do what I want!"

Nero nods in response while being quite amused by Bardiel's reaction. "Just be sure to take Kaworu down. If you don't, you won't be able to cause destruction like you want."

Bardiel replies with his usual tone. "That's what I was planning to do! I need to get that bastard back for messing me up so much!"

Nero lowers his head again while closing his eyes and then thinks with a hint of sadness appearing, "I really wish I could have kept fighting, but I left myself in an extremely vulnerable position. There's nothing else I can do." He gives out a small sigh while thinking, "I'm sorry, mother... I can't keep fighting like you want me to."

Suddenly, veins start to dilate across the right side of Nero's face. This is to display that Bardiel is taking over Nero's body, and after successfully doing that, Bardiel snaps Nero's head up with a demented smile showing. At the same time, Nero's eyes have turned dark blue again and the cross-shaped mark on his back starts to shine. Bardiel then gets up on the seat and says with an excited tone, "I was hoping for this to eventually happen! The only way I could infiltrate his body is when his ego was about to disappear!"

Bardiel looks at Nero's right hand while lifting it in front of him. "But I never thought he would lose it since he has a strong will."

After saying that, Bardiel tightly clenches Nero's hand into a fist. "But now he's even willing to give me control!" He leans forward a little bit while lowering Nero's right arm. "What an idiot?! Now I can really...!" Bardiel unexpectedly stops himself from what he was going to say as his eyes widen out of realization. A hint of sadness then fills his eyes while lowering his head to look down.

Right after that, Bardiel smiles and says with a sincere tone, "I can really... Help him..." He then closes his eyes with an annoyed look appearing as he places Nero's right hand on his waist. "I really do hate you, Nero..."

With those words from Bardiel, the scene changes and shows Nero in the same Sea of Dirac that he was in when he first met Bardiel. He's standing while looking in front of himself with a spaced out expression. He's then a bit surprised as he notices out of the corner of his eyes that Bardiel has appear to his right. Bardiel has appeared to Nero while looking like him, but with the difference of him having the dark blue eyes and the dilated veins on his face.

Nero slowly turns his head towards Bardiel with confusion brimming. "What are you doing here? I gave you control."

Bardiel extends his right hand to Nero while smiling and says with sincerity being displayed, "You don't deserve to be here."

Nero's very confused by Bardiel's words while lightly slanting his head to the left. "Huh?"

Bardiel chuckles while cocking his head to the right. "You have people you want to be with. I'm not going to take that away from you."

Nero makes a skeptic expression while turning his body to face Bardiel. After that, he leans towards him while pointing at him with his right index finger, "But you said..."

Bardiel gets a bit irritated while tilting his head back to look up and yells out, "I know what I said!" He then looks directly at Nero with a slight smile while calming down. "But you got to me. After seeing how willing you are to fight for the people you care about, I guess I came to respect you a little."

In response to what he just heard, Nero's completely stunned while gawking at Bardiel. Afterwards, Bardiel puts his hand down while clenching it and gets very annoyed. "Don't make such a stupid look!" He then extends out his right hand again. "Now take my hand, so I can get you out of here!"

Nero plainly looks at Bardiel's hand. He then starts to reach for it with his left hand, but suddenly stops while pulling his hand away. After that, Nero looks at Bardiel with a light smile. "On one condition."

Bardiel throws his head back while yelling out in anger and disbelief, "Not this again!" He returns his attention back to Nero with annoyance returning. "What is it this time?! I'm giving you control with no strings attached, so why does there have to be a condition?!"

Nero softly laughs. "Because my condition is for us to be one. We need to synchronize to the point that we share one body. It's the only way to beat Kaworu."

Bardiel's eyes widen while being shocked by what Nero said. Immediately after, he regains his composure and smiles with confidence radiating. "I'm fine with that."

Nero nods with excitement arising. "Awesome!" He lifts up his left hand and slaps Bardiel's right hand. At that moment, Nero regains control of his body while still having veins on his face, but only on the right side. His left eye has returned to its natural color while brightly shinning as the right eye continues to be the shinning dark blue. He then yells out with a confident tone, "Let's do this!"

Unit 03 starts-up again and quickly grabs onto the lance that's still stuck into its stomach with its right hand. It then pulls it out while holding onto the ground of the moon with its left hand and throws the lance with as much force as possible straight towards the Earth.

The focus momentarily turns to Unit 06 as it continues to stand where it was earlier while Kaworu stares at the sky with a hint of concern due to him hearing a familiar sound. He's then surprised to see that the Lance of Longinus is heading towards him with remarkable speed.

Kaworu's unable to dodge in time, and as a result, Unit 06's left shoulder is pierced by the lance. This causes Kaworu to feel an intense pain resonate from his shoulder while grabbing onto it with his right hand and lets out an agonizing scream with his head thrown back.

Nero's main screen displays that the lance hit Unit 03 and this causes Nero to happily shout out, "Alright, this is it! You ready, Bardiel?!"

Bardiel's voice resounds through Nero's mind with an optimistic tone, "Hell yeah! It's all or nothing!"

Nero promptly nods while being very pleased. Unit 03 then lets out a loud roar as its eyes light up and launches itself off the moon's surface soon after. The black Eva heads towards the Earth and promptly reaches the Earth's orbit with amazing speed. After a few seconds go by, Unit 03 passes through both the stratosphere and atmosphere with a lot of wind blowing towards it.

Concern can be seen on Kaworu's expression as he's looking up at the sky with his hand still on his shoulder. He then hears a loud sound that's a lot like the sound a shuttle makes and is surprised to see Unit 03 heading straight towards him while yelling out in panic, "He can not be serious?! He will not be able to stop himself from crashing in that speed! Does he plan to sacrifice himself?!"

Nero confidently responds to what Kaworu said due to him being able to hear him through the intercom with his eyes locked on Unit 06. "Something like that!"

Kaworu's horrified by Nero's outburst and quickly leans forward with worry being displayed. "What do you mean?!"

Nero joyfully laughs. "It's all about luck, Kaworu! I've gone through so many near-death experiences that now I'm going to see if I'll come out of another one! Who knows, I just might come out of this alive! Either way, this is the only option I have!"

Bardiel cuts in with a reassuring tone. "Don't worry. You won't die, Nero." He then says with a hint of sadness in his voice, "I will though..."

Nero's confused by Bardiel's statement while looking upward and whispers, "Bardiel?"

Meanwhile, Kaworu's eyes had widen out of shock due to Nero's declaration. He then turns his attention towards his left to look at the lance that's still pierced into Unit 06's shoulder and thinks. "That is why he threw the lance at me! He did it to keep me in one spot!" Kaworu peers at Unit 03 as its moments away from coming into contact with Unit 06. Determination then overtakes his expression while Unit 06 expands its A.T. Field to maximum capacity. "This is my only hope!"

Nero returns his focus on Unit 06 while being a bit surprised by Kaworu's statement. He then smiles and yells out in excitement, "Same here!" Unit 03 then pulls its right arm back and thrusts it right onto the center of Unit 06's A.T. Field. This happens to be where the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil design is located. The collision creates a monstrous impact, which completely shatters the ground up to a large radius.

Kaworu's Eva does its best to hold its ground while the earth underneath it is crumbling. This results in Unit 06 barely maintaining its balance as Kaworu shows panic on his face while seeing Unit 06's A.T Field start to shatter a little. "No! It will not hold!"

Unit 03 intensely glares at Unit 06 while its right arm slowly starts to crack. It then suddenly shatters, and as a result, the entire entry plug turns red due to every screen displaying warning signs while an alarm goes off to show how severe the situation is.

Having witnessed the loss of Unit 03's arm, Nero shows some panic while cringing from the immense pain and damage that's caused to his right arm due to the synchronization. "That's not good!" He then quickly thinks on his feet and pulls his right arm away so he can thrust his left hand forward, which Unit 03 imitates, and forcefully thrusts its own left hand onto Unit 06's A.T. Field.

Kaworu shows an immense amount of surprise while thinking, "Incredible...! His will show no sign of faltering! It is unbelievable!"

Then, Unit 03's left arm starts to crack as well, which this causes Nero to become a bit worried as he sees it happening. Right after seeing that, Nero suddenly chuckles while lowering his head with his eyes closed and says softly, "This is it!" Unit 03's arm instantly shatters and this makes Nero pull his body to bend backwards as he screams out in pain.

Unit 06's A.T. Field shatters as well and seeing this causes Kaworu to gasp from disbelief. Nero then suddenly opens his eyes with a fierce look on his face as he gazes at Unit 06 without moving his head. After that, he lunges forward while passionately screaming as Kaworu's completely stunned by Unit 03's advancement. The black Eva then collides into Unit 06 and causes both Evas to crash into the ground while creating an even larger impact that takes up to a 10 mile radius.

After the impact of the two Evas, the entire outskirts of Toronto and even a large part of Toronto itself have been completely destroyed due to the destruction created from the impact. Conveniently, no civilians were hurt since they had evacuated around the same time SEELE did. After some time passes, it's revealed that both Evas are seriously damaged. Although, Unit 06 is still in one piece since it hadn't receive much damage during the battle in general and was able to withstand a good amount of that last impact.

Unit 03 on the other hand is in such bad shape that not only had it lost its arms, but most of its body had shattered from the impact. The only thing that remains of Unit 03 is its upper body while its head is gone as well. Then, Unit 06's entry plug hurriedly ejects while it's lying on its right side as it's currently underneath what's left of Unit 03 with both Evas facing each other.

Kaworu steadily gets out of his entry plug and gets on Unit 06's head while looking up at Unit 03 with concern. He can feel an intense burning sensation underneath his feet due to the heat his Eva had been producing throughout the battle, but ignores it and slowly walks up to Unit 03. Kaworu gets on top of its back and makes Unit 03's entry plug eject by pulling on a handle that's on the right shoulder of the now destroyed black Eva.

Right after doing that, Kaworu steadily walks to Unit 03's entry plug and calmly grabs onto the hatch's handle. He slightly grimaces from the immense heat that the plug is also producing while gradually opening the plug. As soon as he opens the plug, some of its LCL pours out, and after that, Kaworu peers inside while turning his head to the left to check on Nero's current condition.

Nero lies on the plug's seat while not being revealed completely because of the darkness within the entry plug as he's showing no signs of movement. In the meantime, Kaworu continues to show concern while gradually entering the entry plug. He then gets out of the plug while carrying Nero in his arms and stands on what's left of Unit 03's back with his focus on Nero.

After a few seconds go by, Kaworu looks towards the moon with a content expression and says in his usual polite tone, "You may have not beaten me, but I shall consider this as a draw. You have successfully proven to me that what you were fighting for was enough for you to overcome destiny. Just as I had denied my destiny for Shinji's sake when I let him kill me." He looks back down at Nero.

Nero still shows no sign of movement while being in Kaworu's arms as it's revealed that he has received quite a lot of physical injuries throughout his body. This is due to that last confrontation, but his body is still in one piece. His head is currently tilted backwards while peacefulness can be seen on his face. It's also noted that the cross on his back is no longer shinning again and the dilated veins on his face have disappeared.

Kaworu lightly grins while seeing how peaceful Nero looks as sincerity overtakes him. "On second thought, let us say you won. You are the true pilot for the Eva that is Adam, after all." He then gazes up towards the sky. "That just adds onto how interesting you are, Nero Ikari."

*Scene Cuts to Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Oh my God! I'm so freaking happy that I finally finished this episode! So much crap got in my way that kept me from finishing, but I'm now done! I hope you all enjoyed the episode. I had to improvise a little, but I think it turned out well. Let me know what you think and look forward to the next episode because it will be quite emotional. Though, you might have to wait quite a bit before getting to read the next episode since I won't have internet for a while. Sorry.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	21. Episode 21

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

I believe this episode will be a bit difficult for me to write. I'm really debating about what to put, although I do have something to start off with. I also have a few ideas that I would like to have in this episode, but I have to see if they fit well enough with the partial image I have. I just need to come up with what this episode will be as a whole. Improvising is pretty much the basis of my creativity, so I guess I'll have to rely on that again. This is seriously going to test me because my mind is coming up with way too many blanks. Wish me, luck. Neon Genesis Evangelion is owned by Gainax and I make no claim of owning it.

Episode 21: Death Is The Only Thing That Can Never Be Avoided In Life

With the battle between Nero and Kaworu concluded, the following day arrives at the new hideout for SEELE. It's early in the morning over there, and at this very moment, there's a meeting between the top five members. They seem to be having a hard time deciding on what to do next. The five members are having their meeting in a room that's illuminated by a glass ceiling that allows the sun to shine into the room while they're sitting at a pretty long, rectangular table. Thanks to the light from the sun, the room is revealed to be quite large while only having one way to exist, which the exit is a large automatic door that's located at a small distance behind Keel. Like always, Keel's at the end of the table while there are two members towards his left and the other two are towards his right.

SEELE # 3's attention is towards the left while looking at Keel with a serious expression. He's also leaning on the table as he's sitting on the right of SEELE # 2. "Keel... You mind telling us why only the five of us are having this meeting? Don't you think the other members have the right to be here to help decide what our next move will be?"

Keel looks at SEELE # 3 with no real emotion while currently imitating Gendo's pose. He then puts his hands down on the table and says with a stern tone while getting a bit serious, "It's not really that. I just saw it as being more convenient for just the five of us to talk over what we'll be doing next instead of having the entire group. Anyway, I'll let them know what we decide in this meeting. It's not like I'm leaving them out of the plan." After saying that, Keel gives SEELE # 3 a slightly devious smirk. "Does that answer your question?"

SEELE # 3 nods while maintaining his seriousness to a certain level. "Indeed, now tell us... What do you think should be our next move? After losing a pilot as valuable as Nero and having to abandon the 4th Branch before it was destroyed, we're in a tight situation. Plus, we couldn't stay in America in general since there was no possible way to conceal that incident. That's why we're here, after all."

SEELE # 4 gives out a short, arrogant laugh with his arms folded as he's leaning against his chair. He's also looking at SEELE # 3 while saying with a blatant tone, "I say good riddance to Nero!" He looks at Keel with a criticizing expression while suddenly punching the table with his right hand. "You were too dependent on him from the beginning. Because of that, we were highly vulnerable when he betrayed us!"

With that said, SEELE # 4 smiles in an evil way and says with a harsh tone, "Anyway, he may have been a great pilot, but he wasn't THAT great! He did lose to Tabris, after all!" He then starts to laugh in a maniacal manner with his head cocked back while having removed his right fist from the table.

Keel focus on SEELE # 4 with no real emotion being displayed. After that, he sighs with his eyes closed as his head's lowered a little and says with a plain tone, "You are correct. I was too dependent on Nero." He then slowly looks at SEELE # 4 with a serious stare. "But I was dependent on him because it was of great importance to have him on our side for our plan."

SEELE # 4 raises his right eyebrow while giving Keel a skeptical look. "Is that for a fact?!" He's then overcome with annoyance, quickly gets up from his seat and slams both hands on the table. "Why is that?! You never once justified us with an explanation of why Nero was so important!"

Keel smirks while lowering his head again and slowly shakes it. "I don't need to explain that. It should be quite obvious why Nero's so important." He veers his focus to SEELE # 4 with seriousness returning. "But that doesn't matter now. Nero's no longer part of the equation. Tabris took care of him."

SEELE #2 becomes quite worried after hearing what Keel had said while leaning towards Keel with his left arm resting on the table. "How sure are you about that? Tabris hasn't returned since they're confrontation. In Canada's report, there was no sign of Unit 06 being in the area or even Nero's body."

Keel looks at SEELE # 2 with a hint of irritation. "What are you implying? That Tabris will betray us as well? That there's a possibility Nero's still alive?" He lightly shakes his head while keeping his eyes on SEELE # 2. "That's impossible. I spoke to Tabris and his alliance with us is too important to him."

SEELE # 5 smirks with arrogance brimming as he's leaning on the table with his left arm resting on top of it. "That's because he believes that destiny can't be refused without giving up your life. And even then, he still thinks that it's impossible to go against it!" He then laughs with his head cocked back and his eyes closed. "What a fool?!"

Keel turns his gaze to SEELE # 5 and says with a stern tone, "That's enough!"

That outburst causes SEELE # 5 immediately stop laughing while looking at Keel with surprise on his face.

Then, Keel states without changing his tone, "Destiny is something that shouldn't be changed! A person's destiny has been decided by God, and to ignore your destiny is the same as spitting God in the face! We all have a destiny, and we will obediently follow through with it!"

SEELE # 2 rests his back against his seat and calmly responds to Keel's statement. "The Instrumentality Project is the destiny of mankind. We must be one to pay for all of our sins as humans."

Keel glances at SEELE # 2, calmly nods and then turns his attention towards the rest of the members while saying with a firm tone, "I don't know where Tabris is, but I assure all of you that he was able to eliminate Nero as a threat."

Some concern can be seen on SEELE # 3's expression as he says with his right hand slightly raised, "But what if he decides to go against his destiny? He's done it before."

SEELE # 5 looks at SEELE # 3 out of the corner of his eyes with curiosity showing as his body is turned towards Keel. "Why would he do that? Keel just said it matters a great deal to Tabris to be on our side."

Keel suddenly cuts in while saying with an emotionless tone as he's looking down at the table, "There's a small possibility he could betray us."

In response to what Keel just said, the others look at him while being a bit surprised. Keel then states with a cold tone, "The reason I say that is because of Nero." He looks at all of them with seriousness re-establishing itself on his person. "I could see it when he was little. He had an ability to persuade people and gain their trust with not much effort. It really went to his advantage when he gave out his theories to restore the world to the way it was before 2nd Impact."

SEELE # 2's eyes widen out of realization after hearing Keel's words. "That's right..." He quickly regains his composure while being quite serious. "He always had that dream of restoring the world." SEELE # 2 then looks up at the ceiling with a bit of confusion arising. "To be honest, I didn't quite understand why he wanted to do that."

Having said that, SEELE # 2 returns his attention back to Keel with concern taking over. "He knows that Instrumentality would completely make his efforts go in vain, so why would he go through all that work for nothing?"

Keel's a bit surprised with his eyes locked on SEELE # 2 as he thinks to himself, "He's right!" He then becomes quite upset while looking downward with his right hand clenched into a fist that's now on the table as he thinks, "How could I have not realized it?! He never wanted to help with Instrumentality! That means he had planned on betraying me from the beginning!"

After processing that through his head, Keel tries to calm himself while taking a deep breath. Once he does that, he looks up at the others with a calm demeanor and firmly says to them, "Don't worry about such trivial things. Nero's dead. We don't have to worry about him anymore."

SEELE # 4 sits back down on his chair with seriousness being noted. "True, but what should we do now? Even though I never liked Nero, we still lost a pilot we didn't expect losing before attempting Instrumentality again. To make things worse, we have no clue where Tabris and Unit 06 are. Not to mention, thanks to that damn Nero, Unit 07 and its pilot are out of play for the time being."

SEELE # 2's filled with curiosity while maintaining his focus on Keel. "Come to think about it, what's Evan's current condition?"

Keel calmly looks at SEELE # 2. "He hasn't regained consciousness yet, but that does not matter at the moment. It will be a while until Unit 07 is repaired anyway."

SEELE # 3 crosses his arms with his body still against the table while being a bit worried. "So, we'll continue as plan. Just this time we won't have Evan, Nero and maybe not even Tabris in our arsenal."

Keel turns his attention towards SEELE # 3 while slowly shaking his head. "No. Due to our current situation, we must change our planned date for Instrumentality. I've spoken to our technicians and they're working on more Dummy Plug Evas as we speak."

SEELE # 4's briefly in shock due to what he just heard. He then gets closer to Keel by leaning forward onto the table while being very upset as he yells out, "Why?! I thought we were stopping at 20!" He's expression then changes to a serious one and continues to say without changing the volume in his voice, "We could end it right now by sending the four we have and by sending Units 08, 09 and 10!"

Keel glares at SEELE # 4 with a cold look. "There are too many 'X-Factors' to take into consideration. It's for the best to increase our forces until Unit 07 is repaired." He promptly turns his attention to all of them with seriousness showing. "Anyway, Unit 08's pilot needs some more time to fully awaken. Evan needs to go through more tests with the amplifier as well. We were fortunate enough to learn from Nero and Evan facing each other that Evan can't hope to defeat the 3rd Child, who's capabilities aren't far away from Nero's."

Irritation can be noted on SEELE # 4's face while pulling away from Keel and rests his back against his chair with his arms folded. "I can understand that, but in their current condition, NERV will easily fall to us if we launch a full on assault now."

With that said, SEELE # 4 gives off a small smirk with a hint of arrogance in it. "Nero did do a couple of things that benefited us greatly. He destroyed that cheap copy of Unit 00, he split Unit 00 in half just like he did with Unit 07 so it'll take NERV a while to repair it, he left Unit 05 with some extensive damage and Unit 01 is in its worst condition to date." He then says with a maniacal tone while smiling, "It'll take NERV forever to repair it!"

SEELE # 5 raises his left eyebrow with a hint of curiosity showing. "Is there a specific reason why you left out Unit 04?"

SEELE # 4 slightly turns his head towards the left to look at SEELE # 5 from behind himself while arrogantly smiling. "Of course! Unit 04's pilot is a joke!" He then turns to face SEELE # 5. "He was the first one to be taken out by Nero! It's true that his Eva did receive the least amount of damage, but that doesn't matter! As long as it has that pilot, it could never pose as a threat to us!" SEELE # 4 throws his head backwards and laughs in a maniacal manner.

SEELE # 2 calmly stares at SEELE # 4. "Though I normally hate agreeing with you, you have a point." He then looks at SEELE # 5. "The only pilot that was as worthless at Unit 04's pilot was the one that piloted Unit 00's copy. Ikari should have really re-thought appointing those two as pilots."

SEELE # 4 looks at SEELE # 2 and shouts out while being quite happy, "Not only them, but the guy Nero had replaced! He sucked so much that he couldn't synchronize with Unit 03! It doesn't even matter the fact that it was Bardiel rejecting him that kept him from synchronizing! He still sucked either way!" He starts to laugh again in the same manner as earlier.

Keel cuts in while saying with a commanding tone after having slammed his right fist down on the table, "That's enough! We get your point! But we'll be doing things my way!"

SEELE # 4 quickly snap his head towards Keel while being a bit caught off guard by his words. He then makes an upset expression and yells out while leaning towards Keel again, "We've been doing things your way from the very beginning and look what it's gotten us! Make the right decision for once and send all of our working Evas!"

In response to what SEELE # 4 just said, Keel becomes furious and then slowly gets up from his seat while still looking at SEELE # 4. This sudden action causes SEELE # 4 to be overcome with concern while planting his back against his chair once again. "K-Keel?"

Keel gives SEELE # 4 a fierce and serious look for a moment. He then quickly reaches behind his back with his right hand and pulls out a pistol. After doing that, he quickly points it at SEELE # 4 and suddenly shoots him in the forehead without hesitation.

As a result, the other SEELE members are all shocked at what they have just witnessed while SEELE # 4's stunned as the momentum of the bullet sends him backwards with his chair to fall onto the ground. Blood then spurts out from his head as he lies motionless on the ground.

After seeing SEELE # 4 fall to the ground, Keel puts the hand that he holds the gun with down and then turns his attention towards the other members with seriousness being maintained. "Is there anyone else who has a problem with doing things my way?"

The remaining SEELE members look at him for a moment while still being shocked at what he did. They then look at each other and each of them composed themselves to be serious as they nod at each other. After doing that, they look at Keel again and confidently nods at him.

Keel smirks and then sits back down on his chair while imitating Gendo's famous pose with both hands locked together in front of his mouth. "Good. Now trust me, the next attack will be launched as soon as I have gotten confirmation on the progress of the other Dummy Plug Evas. Also, I think it's about time that some of our members get more involved with our efforts."

SEELE # 2 makes a worried expression while leaning towards Keel. "What's that suppose to mean?"

Keel gazes at SEELE # 2 while smiling to himself since the others can't see through his hands. "You'll soon see." He then looks at the other members. "The next attack we launch won't be our main attack. It's just to experiment something and based on how it goes, I'll make the so-called 'right decision' that our former member was mentioning." Keel chuckles in an evil way.

With those final words stated by Keel, the scene instantly changes to focus on Gendo's office while it's clearly reaching the evening in Japan. At this moment, Gendo and Fuyutsuki are located at Gendo's desk while Misato and Kaji are at a small distance away from Gendo's desk as they face him and Fuyutsuki. There's an intense atmosphere in the room after Gendo had told Misato and Kaji what will be their next course of action pertaining the damaged Evas. After that, everyone's attention is drawn onto Kaji for him to tell them what he found out during his search for SEELE.

Gendo's looking at Kaji with a serious expression while sitting at his desk as he's in his usual pose. "Well, Mr. Kaji? The floor is yours. Give us what you have discovered in your investigation."

Kaji looks at Gendo with a calm demeanor being noted as his hands are in his pockets. "Alright. To start things off, I found out where SEELE was hiding."

Misato takes a step towards Kaji, who's towards her left, while being surprised by what he just said while smiling at him. "Really?! That's great! Now we can finally come up with a plan to attack them!"

Kaji turns his head to look at Misato with some sadness being displayed. "I said that they WERE hiding?"

Confusion rapidly takes over Misato's expression as she lightly tilts her head to the left. "Were?" She then gets quite upset while leaning towards Kaji with her arms outstretched towards the sides a little. "So you mean they aren't there anymore?!"

Kaji nods at Misato while maintaining the same level of sadness on his person and then turns his attention towards Gendo. "SEELE was located at the outskirts of Toronto, Canada this entire time. But due to a recent incident, their hideout was destroyed and they had to abandon it."

Fuyutsuki's quite surprised by what he just heard as he's standing to the right of Gendo with his hands behind his back. "Destroyed?! How's that possible?! What happened?!"

Kaji smirks while glancing at Misato and says to her, "You're going to like this part."

Misato's confused again while pulling her head back slightly and thinks, "What does he mean by that?"

Kaji's attention is back towards Gendo and Fuyutsuki while being content. "Apparently from the news report, it was sighted that a giant, black humanoid object... More specifically called by the civilians who were able to see it without being hurt as a 'giant robot' was the cause of not only the destruction of SEELE's hideout, but also caused severe damage to the area." He gazes at Misato out of the corner of his eyes while smiling. "Do you want to make a guess at who did it?"

Misato's eyes widen while being very excited as she gets even closer to Kaji. "Was it Unit 03?!"

As a result, Gendo's slightly surprised at the mentioning of Unit 03 while still maintaining his pose.

Kaji nods at Misato with sincerity brimming. "Yeah... And that means only one thing."

Misato yells out of joy while wrapping her arms around Kaji's neck to embrace him with her eyes closed as her right cheek is in contact with his left. "Nero's actually on our side! There's no doubt about it!"

After hearing Misato's outburst, Gendo and Fuyutsuki both share a quick glance with each other while each being quite content. They then turn their attention back towards Kaji and Misato as Kaji smiles again while holding Misato with his arms wrapped around her waist.

Kaji suddenly makes a somber expression while looking towards the floor out of the corner of his right eye. "Yeah... But there's bad news."

Misato instantly opens her eyes while being very concerned. She then pulls her head away from Kaji's cheek to look directly at him while still holding him by the neck and says with a worried tone, "I don't like how you said that all of a sudden. What happened?"

Kaji looks at Misato with sadness in his eyes and then tries to tell her the bad news, but seems to have a hard time saying it at first. As a result, he looks away from her by turning his head towards the right to help him finally say it with a somber tone, "Unit 03 was reported to have been... Destroyed..."

Gendo's eyes immediately widen while being shocked by the words "Have been destroyed". He then puts his hands down onto the desk while thinking to himself, "Nero..."

Disbelief can be seen on Misato's face as she slowly releases her hold on Kaji's neck and puts her arms down. She then does her best to sustain tears from falling down her face as she leans towards Kaji and passionately yells with a distraught tone, "No! That can't be! He can't be dead!"

Kaji slowly looks at Misato with sadness showing on his face. "I'm sorry, Misato. From the information I was able to gather, it seems like Nero had to fight against a really strong Eva. There was no information on the appearance of the Eva or anything that would help us, but it was noted that the battle between it and Nero created the destruction of the area. It was also hinted that Nero was the one to have lost since what little remained of Unit 03 was the only thing found afterwards."

Having said that, Kaji gazes at the floor and says with the same amount of sadness, "That's pretty much all I was able to get. During the time frame of the destruction of that area, everyone had to evacuate to prevent any casualties. There was no one there to see what happened." He then looks at her again. "But when the people of Canada went to check on the area, they found what was left of Unit 03, but Nero's body was nowhere to be found."

Misato's eyes widen while being a quite surprised and then says with an optimistic tone, "Then he could have managed to escape! He could still be alive!"

Fuyutsuki gives Misato a serious look while saying with a cold tone, "You know better than that, Katsuragi."

That statement from Fuyutsuki causes Misato to be stunned after turning her head to the left to look at him. Fuyutsuki then states while displaying a hint of sadness, "If Nero was on the losing end during the battle, that means he had to have given it everything he had. That includes synchronizing with Unit 03 to over 400%, which would result in him losing his ego and becoming one with the Eva. That's most likely the reason why his body wasn't found."

Misato makes a distraught expression while covering her mouth with her right hand as tears slowly fall down her face. She then thinks to herself with sorrow dwelling within her, "No...! If he's dead then what am I going to tell the others...?! What am I going to tell Shinji and Asuka?!"

Kaji watches Misato while being worried about her. He then gently places his hands on her shoulders to make her look at him as he gives her a caring smile. "I know what you're thinking, Misato. It's going to be hard to tell them, but it has to be done. I'll tell them if it helps."

Misato just looks at him while lowering her hand a little. She then slowly nods at him as she continues to cry and says with her voice cracking up a bit due to her crying, "T-Thank y-you, K-Kaji."

Kaji nods at her while his caring smile changes into a sad smile. He then turns his head to look at Gendo with seriousness returning. "That's all I have, sir... And I'm sorry for the lost of Nero. It must be affecting you too, huh?"

Gendo stares down at his desk while his hands are clenched into fists as he doesn't show any response to Kaji's words at first. He then slowly nods without looking up at Kaji and says with no real emotion emitting from him, "You and Colonel Katsuragi may leave now."

Kaji politely nods while saying, "Thank you, sir." Kaji grabs onto Misato's left hand with his right and helps her leave the room due to her still being upset by Nero's death.

Fuyutsuki watches them until they leave the room. After that, he turns his attention towards Gendo with a slightly concerned expression. "Ikari?"

Gendo quickly responds with a stern tone while his eyes continue to be locked on his desk and doesn't let Fuyutsuki see his face, "Notify Dr. Akagi about what happened. Tell her to have our tech team focus only on Unit 01's repairs for right now. We'll need it fully functional before SEELE decides to launch another attack."

Fuyutsuki nods at him while his face regains its usual serious look. "I'm on it." He then walks away from Gendo while thinking to himself with a bit of worry showing, "I've never seen Ikari like that since Yui died. The lost of one of his sons is affecting him more than I thought it would. It seems that there's a change occurring in him that I would have never expected."

With the completion of that thought, Fuyutsuki reaches the exit and he's about to exit the room. Right before doing that, he gives a quick look at the ceiling and mutters to himself, "Could it be that he's finally doing what Yui wanted from him...? To be a good father..." He looks in front of himself and exits the room.

After Fuyutsuki leaves, Gendo says to himself with emptiness being displayed. "Keel..." His expression then tenses up as his hands clenched so tightly that they start to bleed as he says under his breath, "I'll make you pay for taking Nero away...! I can't achieve what I want now with him gone!"

Gendo tries to calm himself as he contemplates in his mind, "Though Shinji is now a possible option. He doesn't even need the Lance of Longinus, though we can't even retrieve it, anyway." He then closes his eyes with irritation being noted as he shouts out, "But what would be the point with Nero dead?! Yui would never accept it!"

With that final outburst, the scene suddenly changes to focus on Misato and Kaji. They have just arrived at the door step of the apartment as Misato's hesitant to go inside due to her knowing that Kaji will tell the children about Nero's death and doesn't want that because the moment they find out, not only will the death of Nero will feel real, but also, it will cause the children severe emotional pain. Kaji's then able to convince her that it must be done and that it's better to tell them than to keep it a secret until they end up finding out some other way. Misato reluctantly agrees with him and they then enter the apartment.

Afterwards, they gather the children and have them sit at the kitchen table for Kaji to tell them the bad news. Kaji and Misato are standing at the end of the table that's closest to the living room. Shinji, Mari and Asuka sit on the left side of the table in that order while being to the left of Misato. Asuka being the closest to Misato. Touji, Hikari, Kensuke and Rei sit on the other side of the table that's on the right of Kaji in that order. Rei being the closest to Kaji. Misato stands on Kaji's left while they're both facing towards the children.

In reference to what the children are wearing, it can be noted that Shinji's wearing a sky blue buttoned shirt that ties up at the top of his chest while wearing his school pants. Asuka's wearing cut-off shorts as she has on a red and white tank-top that shows her chest a little. Touji is being lazy by not changing out of his track clothing while Hikari has on an orange blouse and grey sweat pants.

In Kensuke's case, he's wearing a buttoned green, rugby shirt and khaki military style shorts while Rei wears a light brown dress that don't even reach her with a black tank-top underneath it. And finally, Mari's wearing a plain, pink shirt with the word "Love" in the middle and pink, silk shorts.

After having gather the children, Kaji takes a deep breath with his head lowered as his eyes are closed. He then looks at the children with sadness showing on his person. "There's something very important that we need to tell all of you."

Kensuke's a bit worried while leaning on the table and yells out, "Does it have to do with my Eva?! How bad is it?! I hope I can still pilot!"

Asuka instantly gets up while slamming her hands on the table and glares at Kensuke with an annoyed expression. "Don't be stupid! Out of all of the Evas that were damaged, yours was the least!" After saying that, Asuka places her hands on her hips while giving Kensuke a smug smirk. "You should be ashamed that you lost so easily with your Eva barely being damaged."

Kensuke gives Asuka an upset look while getting up with his hands planted on the table so that he can lean on it. "It's not my fault! Nero attacked me out of nowhere! There was no way for me to defend myself!"

Asuka crosses her arms while saying in a distasteful tone, "Well if you were a better pilot, then he wouldn't have caught you off guard so easily." She then scoffs at her previous statement while turning her head towards the right and peers up at the ceiling. "Although you still would have lost since you could never reach Nero's level."

Kensuke gets even more upset while grinding his teeth. He then yells out with pure anger arising, "Why the hell do you keep defending that traitor?!"

Due to Kensuke's outburst, the others look at him in shock as Asuka's consumed with rage while gritting her teeth a little. She then grabs him by the collar with both hands from the other side of the table while glaring at him with intensity resonating from her eyes. "What was that?! After what we said about him being our friend, you have the nerve to say that?!"

Kensuke narrows his eyes with seriousness brimming while still being upset. "Yeah!" He then forces Asuka to let go of his collar by slapping her hands away with the back of his right hand. Right after that, he steps away from the table while his chair falls to the ground due to him bumping into it and tightly clenches his hands into fists with his eyes focused on everyone. "Why did we even say that?! There's no way we should ever forgive him! Anyway, he's not coming back!"

Rei immediately gets up from her chair after hearing what Kensuke said, gets in front of her boyfriend and tries to calm him down with her left hand placed on his chest. "Kensuke, please stop. You are going too far with what you are saying."

Touji nods in agreement while still sitting next to Hikari with his arms folded. "She's right, Kensuke. I'm still kinda' mad at him for breaking his promise, but I'm still willin' to give him another chance after what Hikari said 'bout him not wantin' to actually fight us."

Hikari gives Touji a quick glance while smiling and nodding. "That's right." She then turns her attention towards Kensuke. "Everyone deserves a second chance."

Kensuke looks at Touji and Hikari for a moment with an expression of disbelief as he had lightly unclenched his hands. He then re-clenches them and glares at Rei while yelling out, "You guys can't be serious?! After what he did, can we really trust him?!"

With that said, Kensuke turns to everyone with a hint of stress brimming as he swings his right arm towards the side. "Sure he could have killed us, but he probably decided not to because he wanted us to suffer knowing that he could easily beat us at any moment! We need to accept the fact that he's a traitor!"

Asuka grits her teeth while clenching her right hand as she does her best to hold her rage in. Meanwhile, Shinji gives Kensuke an upset look while yelling out, "That's enough, Kensuke! I understand where you're coming from, but we agreed that we would give him a chance to come back to explain himself! If he doesn't, then that means you're right! So just stop because saying all of that is complicating things!"

Mari looks at Shinji with admiration while thinking, "Well put, Shinji. I like it when you stand up for what you believe in."

Kensuke moves towards the right to look at Shinji since Rei was blocking his field of vision with a serious expression. "Why the hell should we wait?! It's obvious he isn't coming back!" He then crosses his arms while looking away from everyone and says with a cold tone, "That bastard deserves to die."

Asuka's eyes widen while being consumed with rage. She then quickly walks around the table from Shinji's side and pulls her right fist back as she's about to throw a punch. "Ficken, Arschloch! (Fucking, asshole!)"

In response, Kensuke had turned to face Asuka, and then flinched with his eyes closed as he's bracing himself for Asuka's punch. After a few seconds go by, he realizes that the punch isn't coming. This causes him to slowly open his eyes while looking at Asuka with concern.

Asuka had made her fist stop short from hitting Kensuke on the none while pure grief can be noted on her face. It's revealed that she's holding back tears as she decides to put her hand down while unclenching it. At the same time, she lowers her head and says with a sad tone, "Stop doubting him... He'll come back... He needs to come back..."

Kensuke has a shocked expression while pulling his head back a little bit as he thinks, "Is it just me or did it look like she was about to cry?!" He's then filled with sadness while looking away from Asuka and the others.

Misato watches Asuka with worry as she thinks to herself, "Asuka..." After thinking that, Misato looks at Kaji and whispers to him with a sad tone, "Kaji...?"

Kaji looks at Misato with a hint of concern and whispers back to her, "What is it, Misato?"

Misato states with some confidence, "I'll tell the children about Nero. I have to be the one to say it. Even though I know it's going to hurt a lot afterwards, it would be best for them to hear it from me."

As a result, Kaji's a bit surprised for a moment and then makes a supportive expression while nodding at her. After seeing Kaji's reaction, Misato gives him a sad smile for a moment. Right after that, she turns to the children with sadness overtaking her again. "Kids... I really need to tell you this before things get more out of hand."

The children all look at her with concern being noted. Misato then takes a deep breath with her eyes closed for a moment, and once she exhales, Misato looks at them while saying with a composed tone, "Kaji was able to find out where SEELE was hiding out, but they're no longer there."

Touji's a bit confused as he asks with his right eyebrow slightly raised, "Why ain't they there anymore?"

Misato smiles lightly while looking at Touji. She then looks at Asuka while being quite pleased as she says, "You were right to have so much faith in Nero."

Asuka's surprised by what Misato said while taking a step towards her. "Do you mean...?"

Misato nods with sincerity brimming. "Yes. He attacked SEELE's hideout from the inside and even fought with a couple of their Evas."

The children are very surprised by what they just heard while looking at Misato.

Meanwhile, Asuka smiles while being very relieved and then looks at Kensuke with happiness arising. "You see! He IS on our side! And he's definitely coming back to us!"

Kensuke makes eye contact with Asuka while still being surprised. Shame then consumes his expression as he drops his downward and says with a sad tone, "I guess, you guys were right to have faith in him... I'm sorry."

Rei lightly places her right hand on Kensuke's left shoulder while standing to his right. At the same time, she gives him a reassuring look while cocking her head slightly towards the left. "It's alright, Kensuke. Everyone makes mistakes."

Misato becomes sad again, closes her eyes and lowers her head. "I wish I could say that Nero's coming back, but sadly I can't."

The children quickly look at Misato again while being a bit confused by what she just said. Asuka then marches up to Misato with worry emitting from her face and stops in front of Misato at a very close distance. "What's that suppose to mean, Misato?!"

Misato slowly looks at Asuka without lifting her head up while tears start to fall down her face. "Asuka... Nero's dead..."

Asuka jaw lowers slightly from disbelief while being completely stunned. Shinji's also in disbelief and then becomes very upset while yelling out, "How can that be?! There's no way he could have lost!"

Kaji steps in knowing that it was hard enough for Misato to say what she just said and gives Shinji a sympathetic look. "I wish that was true, but it seems that one of the Evas he fought was too strong, even for him." He pauses briefly while sighing lightly with his head tilted back for him to look at the ceiling. "There's no clear information on how he lost, but in the end, Unit 03 was found almost completely destroyed. Nero's body wasn't found, but that's most likely because he had to go over 400% synchronization to try to beat the enemy. He became a part of Unit 03 in the process."

Shinji's in shock for a moment as his eyes are wide open. He's then consumed with sorrow while holding back tears and hesitantly turns to Asuka. At the same time, Asuka drops her head down with her face covered by her hair as her hands are clenched again while irrationally shaking.

Hikari sees how Asuka's reacting to the news and then looks at Kaji. "Where did this happen?"

Kaji calmly looks at Hikari while responding to her question. "It happened in Canada. There was a secret 4th Branch located there that I was able to discovered, but I had found that out the same time Nero had attacked it. It was too late for me to do anything since I didn't know for sure that SEELE was located there, however, they were able to evacuate. That much I'm sure of. They're sleazy like that. Our fight with them isn't over."

Mari watches everyone with seriousness being displayed as she thinks to herself, "I was in that Branch before, but that was when I was little. I actually had no idea that place was being kept secret though." She then looks at Shinji with a worried expression while he's still notably upset.

Misato puts her hands on Asuka's shoulders while trying to make her look at her. She then says with sympathy in her voice, "I know how much it hurts, Asuka. We're all hurting, and it's alright to cry. Nero meant a lot to us, even after what he did. And now that we know he did care about us after his actions against SEELE, it just hurts so much more that he's gone!"

Asuka slowly looks up at Misato while her face is uncovered by her hair. Tears have been falling down her face the entire time since hearing the words "Nero's dead". She then embraces Misato as she continues to cry with her head buried into Misato's chest.

In the meantime, the others are all surprised to see Asuka's actions and then some of them slouch down on their seat while trying not to cry due to seeing Asuka's display of emotions. In Shinji's case, he openly lets tears fall due to the lost of a brother he spent so much time without even knowing.

Ironically, Kensuke has a tear go down his face due to him feeling guilty for all of the bad things he said about Nero and has accepted that he was wrong. This resulted in Kensuke feeling sorrow for the lost of Nero as Misato also begins to cry while holding onto Asuka with her eyes closed.

Meanwhile, Kaji watches on while sadness gleams in his eyes. He then focuses his attention towards Asuka and thinks, "So she really does care about Nero. Just like she cares about Shinji. No, her feelings for Shinji weren't so easily expressed like this." Kaji makes a sad smile while thinking, "She must have developed feelings for Nero during the course of him being here, and after he left, her feelings started to show themselves. She must have hid them at first since she was with Shinji, but now that they aren't together anymore, it became easier for her to show that Nero was really important to her."

After thinking that, Kaji chuckles a little while closing his eyes and thinks, "The way love works sometime amazes me." Kaji slowly looks up at the ceiling and mumbles to himself, "I wonder how he felt about her..." He then closes his eyes with sadness taking over. "Sadly, we'll never know..."

They all continue to mourn over Nero's death for a while until they decide to go their separate ways, which means that they went to their respective rooms. The scene's focus is now on Asuka as she's still upset that Nero's dead. She's currently listening to his music player while holding it with her left hand as she's on his bed. She's lying on her left side while facing towards the bedroom's door. Also, the doll that once belonged to her mother is lying on the part of the bed that's behind her while facing towards the ceiling. At the same time, Pen-Pen's sleeping at the end of the bed while being turned away from Asuka as he's gently snoring.

As Asuka's lying on the bed with sadness being noted on her face while she's spacing out a bit, multiple flashes of memories go through her mind of the times she spoke to Nero, of when she saw him, and even the time she stood-up for him on his first day of school. While thinking about all of that, Asuka's listening to an instrumental song called, "Stethoscope" by Taproot.

The song causes her to feel an intense amount of emotions while making her miss Nero even more and says to herself with a somber tone, "I can't believe he's gone... I wish I could have thanked him for all his help. I wish, I could have told him how much him being there meant to me when Shinji and I broke up."

Asuka briefly pauses for a moment while faintly smiling. "He was the type of guy that I actually wanted Shinji to be like. He had the type of confidence that I admired, he was so nice to me, and I really liked that I could talk to him in German. He made me feel comfortable with myself instead of having to worry about how I normally act." She then closes her eyes and thinks about a specific memory.

*Flashback: Over 1 week ago: May, 7 2016*

The memory takes place on the plane that the children and Kaji were on while returning from the Sea Life Reservation. Asuka is sitting on the right side of the plane while being near the aisle with Nero sitting on her left. At the same time, the others are sitting at a bit of a distance away from them. They're currently talking to each other in German out of Asuka's pure desire to speak her native language. and so that no one can understand what the two of them are saying. *Side Note: The following conversation will not have my usual German with the translation at the end of each sentence since it isn't really necessary and it will take too long to do that. So just remember, whenever Nero and Asuka talk to each other, they're talking in German*

Nero gazes at Asuka with a faint smile as both of his hands behind his head with his back resting against his seat. He then looks off towards the left and is promptly surprised a little. Right after that, Nero smirks while saying to Asuka, "Look who's staring at you."

Asuka's currently facing towards Nero until she does what he says and looks behind her by turning her head towards the right with curiosity brimming. She then sees that it's Shinji that's staring at her while noticing that he has a concerned expression. In the meantime, Mari's on Shinji's right while she's trying to get his attention. Asuka's then overcome with annoyance and suddenly sticks her tongue out at Shinji with her eyes closed. After doing that, Asuka quickly turns back around to face Nero.

Due to Asuka's treatment towards him, Shinji becomes quite depressed and then slowly turns his attention towards Mari. Meanwhile, Asuka maintains a small amount of annoyance on her face while looking downward as she asks Nero, "Is he still looking?"

Nero casually shakes his head with his eyes locked on Shinji. "Nope." He focuses on Asuka with a light smile. "You really got him with that tongue of yours." Nero then chuckles a little out of amusement.

Asuka smiles proudly while lifting her head enough to look at Nero. "He deserved it." She then sighs while looking towards her right with sadness consuming her being. "I really don't know what's going to happen between us though."

Nero moves his hands from behind his head and puts them down on top of his lap. After that, he leans towards Asuka, places his face to be very close to her's and then says with a reassuring tone while maintaining his smile, "Don't worry about it so much."

Asuka quickly looks at Nero while pulling her body back a little bit since Nero's so close to her with a bit of redness brimming from her face. She then becomes quite agitated, turns her head towards the left to look away from him as the color of her face reverts back to normal and says, "It's so easy for you to say that! You aren't in my position!"

Sincerity resonates within Nero's eyes as he tilts his head slightly towards the left. "I may not be in your position, but my advice is still sensible. Don't worry about it for now and just try to have some fun."

Asuka looks at him out of the corner of her eyes while being a bit surprised at what he said. She then notices his expression and this causes her to blush again while thinking to herself in German, "The way he's looking at me... I really like it." Asuka's eyes widen from realizing what she had just thought and then rapidly shakes her head with her eyes closed.

Once she stops shaking her head, Asuka turns her body away from Nero while being quite concerned as she thinks with her focus towards the floor, "Why did I think that?! I should be more worried about my relationship with Shinji... But for some reason, I actually thought about how I liked the way he was looking at me just now!" She then closes her eyes again while yelling in her mind, "What the hell's wrong with me?!"

Nero peers in on Asuka while giving her a look of curiosity as he's joyfully smiling. "Is there something wrong, Asuka?"

Asuka slowly opens her eyes with a hint of sadness in her eyes and then quickly turns to face Nero with confidence immediately taking over. "Of course there isn't! I'm the Great Asuka Langley Soryu, after all!" She smiles at him without losing any of her confidence.

Nero smirks while closing his eyes with his head lowering slightly. He then plants his back against his seat again, puts his left foot on top of his right lap and places his hands behind his head to make himself comfortable. "Liar. Obviously there's something wrong."

Asuka's surprised as he mind jumps with the thought, "Damn it! He figured it out!"

Nero opens his eyes after a few seconds and gazes at her out of the corner of his eyes with sincerity resurfacing. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to though. But if you decide that you want to tell me, then you can tell me whenever. I don't mind waiting."

Asuka's surprised even more for a moment as those words weren't the ones she was expecting from him. She then makes a joyful expression while smiling and nodding at him. "I'll keep that in mind."

*End of Flashback*

With the completion of her remembrance, Asuka opens her eyes while still smiling. "That day made me realize that I could really be myself with him. And the way he looked at me, made me feel something that I never felt with Shinji, or even when I thought I was in love with Kaji."

Asuka briefly stops talking for a moment while taking a deep breath and then says, "He gave me that same look when he told me to get out of the area so I wouldn't get hurt." Asuka's overcome with sadness as tears start to fall while she closes her eyes again. She then passionately yells to herself in a low volume while clenching the bed's sheet with her right hand, "Why did he have to die?!"

Due to Asuka's cry, Pen-Pen wakes up and slowly gets up while still being tired. He then turns his attention towards Asuka and sees her crying. As a result, it can be seen that there's a sense of sadness coming from Pen-Pen's face while he slouches a little. Afterwards, Pen-Pen slowly waddled towards Asuka and stands in front of her with concern being displayed as his head is slightly cocked to the right. After doing that, he lets out a gentle squawk to grab Asuka's attention.

Asuka responds to Pen-Pen by slowly opening her eyes while they're filled with tears and looks at him. After looking at Pen-Pen, Asuka loosens her grip on the bed sheet and spreads out her right arm while saying with a strained tone due to her crying, "Come on, Pen-Pen..."

In response to Asuka's request, Pen-Pen gives her a sharp nod and then waddled into her embrace while lying down in front of Asuka. After Pen-Pen lies down, Asuka holds onto him tightly from behind while closing her eyes with tears slowly falling. Although the pain is still swelling within Asuka's chest, having Pen-Pen in her grasp actually helps her go to sleep.

With that, countless days go by as the children had to continue on with life. During that time frame, it was decided that Touji and Hikari can go back home to live with their families since they haven't seen them. Both Touji and Hikari liked the fact that they were going to be with their families, but were quite sad that they weren't going to be living with the others anymore. Either way, they will still be involved with NERV as they have been assigned the position as back-up pilots. So they'll still head to NERV with the other children when there's an attack.

As time continues on, some of the pilots have tried to move on since the fact still remains that Nero's dead, but Asuka has a hard time trying to achieve that. She isn't the only one since Shinji also can't get over Nero's death, even though Mari does everything she can to cheer him up. As the children are busy with school, Misato, Ritsuko and Kaji are having a conversation at NERV's cafeteria due to it being lunch time.

Ritsuko looks at Misato with a serious expression while moving the cafeteria food that's on her plate with chopsticks that she's in her right hand. "So how are the pilots? It's been about two weeks since you told them about Nero's death."

A hint of sadness can be noted on Misato's expression as she's turned away from Ritsuko. She's currently holding her head up with her right hand that's placed on her right cheek as she's staring towards her left while steadily tapping her left hand on the cafeteria table that they're sitting at. "Some of them are doing their best to get over his death, but it's really hard. Shinji and Asuka in specific are being distant from everyone."

Ritsuko calmly glances at her plate as she puts her chopsticks down and places her hand gently on the table. "That's to be expected. Shinji and Nero were brothers after all, and from what you told me, Asuka apparently had feelings for Nero." She looks up at Misato with a bit of skepticism showing. "Which I find odd since she was with Shinji the entire time Nero was here."

Kaji smiles out of a slight feeling of amusement with his right arm resting on the table as he's sitting to the left of Misato while facing Ritsuko. "That's how love works sometimes. A person can fall in love with someone in an instant. Love isn't supposed to be logical." He looks at Misato and then says with a playful tone, "Isn't that right, Misato?" Kaji winks at her while trying to keep himself from laughing.

That action causes Misato to blush a little while moving her right hand away from her cheek a little as she's looking at Kaji. She then nods at him while smiling for a brief moment. Afterwards, she's suddenly filled with sadness as she puts her hand down on the table and looks at her hand with a composed posture.

Kaji notices that and thinks to himself with a bit of concern being displayed, "Misato knows exactly what Asuka's going through. When I died, she must have gone through a serious depression."

After thinking that, Kaji looks up at the ceiling with a vague expression while thinking, "I just hope that Asuka and the others will get it together when the time comes to fight SEELE." Kaji then realizes something and turns his attention towards Ritsuko with curiosity brimming while asking, "By the way, how are the Evas?"

Ritsuko looks at Kaji with a slight smile. "Pretty well. It's fortunate that SEELE hasn't launched an attack, but we could thank Nero for that."

Misato sharply nods at Ritsuko with a serious expression taking over. "You're right. We have to consider that his attack on SEELE threw them off from trying to attack us for a while." Her face fills with sorrow while lowering her head. "We owe him one for that."

Ritsuko nods in agreement while looking at Misato out of the corner of her eyes. "We sure do. Anyway, back to what I was saying. Unit 01 has been completely repaired, but it took us almost two weeks to manage that."

Kaji focuses his attention on Ritsuko while having a composed demeanor. "That makes sense since it did receive the most damage. All of its steel armored plates were melted down, after all."

Ritsuko responds to Kaji's statement while putting her right hand into her lab coat's right pocket. "Indeed, but due to all of our efforts focused on Unit 01, we haven't been able to really repair the other Evas except Unit 04 due to the damage it received being minimal. Also, we completely lost the Extra Eva and Unit 03 was not only stolen by Nero, but after his sacrifice, what remains of it is practically nothing."

Misato looks back at Ritsuko with a firm expression. "You have a point. Even though Nero made up for his betrayal by buying us time, he still cost us a heavy lost." She then pauses for a moment as she looks away from both Ritsuko and Kaji. "But the greatest lost was losing him."

Kaji gives Misato a calm look. "Yes." He then locks eyes with Ritsuko. "So, we only have Units 01, 02 and 04 at the moment, right?"

Ritsuko nods while being quite disappointed. "At the moment, yes. The tech team is working on Unit 00 as we speak since it was split in half. Unit 05 won't take that long to be repaired as well. They should both be operational in a few days. In the meantime, I've been working on a few things that will really help us against SEELE."

Before she was able to continue, Ritsuko's cellular starts to vibrate, and this surprises her a little due to her normally not receiving calls through her cellular. She then easily pulls it out of her right coat pocket since her left hand was already in there and places it on her right ear with seriousness and curiosity taking over as she's looking downward. "Dr. Akagi speaking."

Gendo's voice comes through Ritsuko's cellular while having a serious tone, "It's me. I need you, Colonel Katsuragi, and Mr. Kaji, who should still be in the facility, in my office immediately."

Concern rapidly appears on Ritsuko's face as she quickly looks at Misato and Kaji. "What's going on? You never call me through my cellular."

Gendo calmly states, "There's someone here that you three need to meet. Get here quickly." He promptly hangs-up on his end, which causes Ritsuko to be ver surprised as she stares at her cellular for a moment.

Meanwhile, Misato's quite concerned while leaning towards Ritsuko. "What's wrong, Ritsu?"

Ritsuko looks at Misato with a confused expression. "There's someone at Commander Ikari's office that he wants the three of us to meet."

Kaji's instantly filled with curiosity while tilting his head towards the right. "I wonder who it could be."

With that question from Kaji left in the air, the scene suddenly changes to show Gendo in his office while having Fuyutsuki stand next to him like usual.

Gendo had just hung up the phone that's connected to his desk. Afterwards, he turns his attention towards the front of the room with seriousness brimming. "They're on their way."

Fuyutsuki gives off a stern look while focused on the front part of the room as well. "You better give us answers once they arrive, Tabris."

Kaworu's revealed while emerging from the shadows of the south part of the room. He's contentedly smiling with his hands in his pockets while wearing the same school clothes he wore when he met Shinji, which happen to be the same from the school. Kaworu then says in his usual polite tone, "I prefer that you call me, Kaworu. And there is no need to worry about that. I will tell you everything I have to say, and even make you an offer you will surely accept." He laughs a little while still smiling.

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Not going to give anything away. If you have any questions, wait for the next episode because it most likely will answer them. If the question has something to do with Nero's death, then depending on the question, I MIGHT answer it. But it really depends on the question. I hope you all enjoyed how emotional this episode was and the randomness of Keel shooting a member of SEELE. *Laughs* Look forward to the next one.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	22. Episode 22

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

This episode is going to be very dramatic from what I can see from the idea I have in my head. Improvising is my bread and butter, so the abuse of it will continue like usual. Taking that into consideration, I might throw in some action, but you all will have to wait and see. I would like to now apologize to all of those who don't like how I went with my story, but I just wanted it to be different from most Eva fics. The whole Shinji and Asuka pairing has been played out too much in other fan fiction stories, although I do approve of that pairing as the one that should happen in the actual series. I actually would have been fine pairing Mari with Nero, but I just decided not to. Sorry if it isn't to your liking. Neon Genesis Evangelion is sole property of Gainax and I do not plan on using this story in any way to gain money or slander the good name of Gainax and their dedicated workers. I'm just doing this to entertain others with my vision of a second season of Evangelion. That is all. Enjoy.

Episode 22: Friend Or Foe? The Return Of The True Fifth Child

The main focus starts off in Gendo's office. Gendo and Fuyutsuki are currently looking at Kaworu, who's at a small distance away from Gendo's desk. Like always, Gendo is sitting at his desk with Fuyutsuki standing to his right as Misato, Ritsuko and Kaji have just entered the room. They're then completely caught off guard by the sight of Kaworu being there while he's looking at them with a calm smile. Kaworu stands towards the left side of the room while Misato, Kaji and Ritsuko are towards the right side. So from Gendo and Fuyutsuki's point of view, Kaworu's on the right while Misato, Kaji and Ritsuko are on the left.

Misato looks at Kaworu with a shocked expression as she yells out, "What the?!" Misato quickly turns her attention towards Gendo while pointing at Kaworu with her left hand. "What's the 17th Angel doing here?!" She then looks back at Kaworu while putting her hand down. "Not to mention the fact that you're alive! Shinji killed you! So how are you...?!"

Kaworu continues to smile while cocking his head slightly towards the right. "Is it not obvious? How are all of you alive?"

Misato's eyes widen after figuring out what Kaworu meant while pulling her head back a little. She then gets very irritated while glaring at him. "So Shinji brought you back too, huh?"

Kaworu contentedly nods and then looks away from Misato. "Yes, he did. Though he did not do it intentionally." He turns his attention back to Misato, shuts his eyes and smiles. "I just got lucky."

Kaji steps into the conversation as he's standing to Misato's right with concern brimming on his face while his focus is on Kaworu. "Well that aside, what are you doing here? From what I've heard, you were an ally of SEELE before Shinji killed you."

Kaworu calmly glances at Kaji as he responds to what he said. "That is true. In fact, I was still an ally of SEELE up until not too long ago."

With her attention still on Kaworu, Misato becomes a bit confused. "What's that suppose to mean?"

Kaworu smirks while calmly turning to face Gendo. "Like I said before, I am going to tell you the purpose for me being here. I am also going to make you an offer that you will surely accept considering how much it will benefit NERV."

Gendo gives Kaworu a curious look while briefly being in his usual pose. He then gets up from his chair with his hands placed on the desk and leans forward a little. "I'm listening."

Kaworu pauses for a moment while looking down at the floor and then looks at Gendo again with a composed demeanor. "I am here to keep a promise I made to Nero."

Seriousness takes over Gendo's expression due to what Kaworu had said while thinking, "A promise to Nero?"

At the same time, Misato's a bit shocked and then promptly says to Kaworu with concern, "You made a promise to Nero?! What kind of promise?!"

Kaworu turns his attention towards the right to look at Misato with no real emotion showing. "If Nero defeated me... Then I would join you."

Ritsuko's a bit confused by what Kaworu said while standing at a small distance behind Misato as she watches at Kaworu. "Defeat you? Does that mean you two fought each other?"

Kaworu nonchalantly looks at Ritsuko and nods. "Yes, and we had agreed that if he won, I would join NERV."

Kaji makes a slightly curious expression as he asks with a firm tone, "Did that fight cause the destruction of SEELE's hideout in Canada?"

Kaworu looks at Kaji with some seriousness being displayed and then gives out a short nod at him. "Indeed. That very fight destroyed the entire facility they were hiding in."

After hearing that, Misato's in shock while not being able to say anything for a few seconds. She then suddenly marches up to him with a firm look replacing her shock. Once she reaches Kaworu, she ruthlessly grabs him by the collar with her right hand and places her face to be quite close to his. "Then you're lying to us!"

Kaworu's eyes widen slightly from surprise due to Misato's statement while being a bit confused as his eyes are locked onto her's. "What do you mean?"

Suddenly, tears begin to form while Misato grits her teeth out of anger. She then passionately yells out while maintaining her grip onto Kaworu's collar, "Don't play dumb! You're telling us Nero beat you when we know for a fact that Nero's Eva was almost completely destroyed, and that he died at the end of that battle! Which means you killed him!"

That statement caused both Kaji and Ritsuko to show a hint of sadness on their expression. In Gendo and Fuyutsuki's case, they watch on with indifference being displayed. At the same time, Kaworu's surprised even more with his eyes widened as he's completely stunned by Misato's words. Misato then gets a bit more irritated while yelling out, "What's with that look?! Are you surprised that I figured out you were lying?!"

After saying that, Misato smiles in an evil-like manner. "Yeah... That must be it. SEELE must have sent you here to try to betray us like Nero did." Her expression then changes as she gives Kaworu a criticizing look. "But this time, they don't have to worry about you betraying them. You are an angel, after all. You want to cause 4th Impact, don't you?"

Kaworu continues to be stunned for a moment as everything that Misato said had hit him so suddenly that he couldn't respond. But, after several seconds of silence goes by, Kaworu's eyes reflect seriousness while he maintains his focus on Misato's eyes and retorts. "I assure you, I have no intention of doing such a thing."

Misato gets very upset as her face closes in on Kaworu's face even more and yells out, "What was that?! You're going to lie to my face again?!"

Sincerity quickly overtakes Kaworu's expression as he lightly smiles at Misato. "I am not lying at all. Nero did defeat me even though the result of the battle is what it is. I made a promise to join NERV because he believed I would be of great help to you. He actually intended coming back with me, but-"

Misato grits her teeth while glaring at Kaworu, which causes Kaworu to stop himself from finishing what he was going to say as Misato clenches her left hand. She then drops her head down with tears starting to fall down her face. After that, Misato slowly loosens her grip on Kaworu's collar and eventually releases her grip of it while dropping her hand down. Having done that, she takes a few steps back and says with a sad tone, "I don't know why... But I believe you."

Kaji's a little surprised by what he just heard come out of Misato's mouth as he's looking on from behind her and thinks, "I didn't see that coming. I actually thought for a moment that she was going to punch him."

Fuyutsuki's also surprised for a moment and then quickly regains his composure with his eyes turned towards Gendo. "Ikari? What do you think?"

Gendo's currently looking down at his desk while being lost in thought. He then slowly lifts up his head to look at Misato and Kaworu with seriousness being noted and says to them, "I've made my decision."

Gendo turns his attention specifically on Kaworu and firmly states, "Kaworu Nagisa."

Both Kaworu and Misato look at Gendo in response with curiosity showing on their faces. Gendo then says without changing his tone, "If what you said is true, then I'm willing to give you a chance to prove yourself."

Shock rapidly overcomes Ritsuko's expression as she's facing towards Gendo. "But Commander Ikari! Are you actually willing to take the chance that he could be another spy?!"

Gendo calmly turns his attention to Ritsuko and nods. "Yes, Dr. Akagi. I believe that Mr. Nagisa wouldn't lie about the promise he made to Nero."

Having said that, Gendo immediately gives Kaworu a cold look. "But if I find out that you're lying about that promise and decide to betray us, I'll make sure you regret that decision. Do I make myself clear?"

Kaworu smiles with content being noted on his face. "Crystal clear, Commander Ikari. Thank you for giving me a chance."

Gendo nods at Kaworu and then looks at Misato while easing up his facial expression to not look so cold. "Do you agree with my decision, Colonel?"

Misato nods with good amount of seriousness brimming. "I agree, but the issue is the other children." She then turns her attention towards Kaworu and says to him, "A couple of them won't trust you. And don't think for a second that I'm not still suspicious of you."

Kaworu looks at Misato with a calm demeanor. "I expected that much." He returns his focus towards Gendo. "I will be sure to do my best so you have no regrets in your decision."

Kaji walks up next to Misato with some concern being displayed. "I hope you mean that. We've already lost so much. The last thing we need is to be deceived again."

Kaworu turns to face Kaji while lightly smiling. "I do mean it. And I shall prove it to you as soon as possible."

Kaji smiles while casually folding his arms. "I look forward to seeing that." Suddenly, a bit of curiosity arises from Kaji as he asks with his head left eyebrow raised, "By the way, the Eva you piloted when you fought Nero... Where is it?"

Kaworu gives Kaji a serious look for a moment and then suddenly smiles with his eyes closed while lightly tilting his head to the left. "I had to leave it behind. It was impossible to bring it with me due to all the damage it had sustained."

Kaji becomes a bit confused while unfolding his arms. "Really? Where did you leave it?" He makes a calm expression while lifting up his left hand next to him as his right hand's in his pocket. "We could possibly go retrieve it. But if we don't, then we'll have a problem with you not having an Eva to pilot."

Kaworu smirks, places his left hand behind his head and says while being a tad embarrassed. "That is the thing... I was actually planning on piloting Unit 04."

Concern rapidly overtakes Misato's expression as her focus remains on Kaworu. "But Unit 04 already has a pilot."

Kaworu looks at Misato with calmness taking over his composure while lowering his hand. "I know, but the Unit 04 you all decided to make a copy of does not have a soul. Just like the original, correct? I can compensate for that since I am an angel, after all."

Ritsuko's quite surprised while looking at Kaworu and say with a moderately composed tone, "How did you know it doesn't have a soul?"

Kaworu gazes at Ritsuko with a slightly sad expression. "SEELE has their resources as well." He then looks at Gendo with a hint of curiosity showing. "Which reminds me, you all obviously have figured out where SEELE is hiding out now, correct?"

Kaji responds to Kaworu's question with a moderately calm expression, "China, right? That's where my source told me considering SEELE has a pretty good relationship with China's government."

Kaworu turns his head to the right to look at Kaji with a mild smile. "Indeed." He then turns his attention towards everyone with a bit of concern while still smiling. "But be careful with your plan to attack them. SEELE will not fall easily to an outside attack. Nero had the right idea when betraying them since an attack from the inside was the only way to catch them off guard."

Gendo nods while being content with the additional information Kaworu just gave them. "Thank you for the warning. We'll keep that in mind." He then becomes quite serious while straightening his posture to place his hands behind his back. "Now, about your desire to pilot Unit 04..."

With that said, Gendo turns his attention towards Misato. "Let him synchronize with it to see the extent of his synchronization. This is just to know what he's capable of. It will be your decision if you think Nagisa should take Aida's place or not, Colonel."

Worry can notably be seen on Misato's face as she's looking at Gendo and thinks, "Obviously, if Kaworu's synchronization is higher, he should definitely get a chance to show us what he's got."

Misato looks towards Kaworu with sadness dwelling inside her being while thinking, "But Kensuke would be heart-broken if I took piloting Eva away from him. Plus, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to have Kaworu pilot immediately. I have to see how the others feel about Kaworu joining and for them to get used to the entire thing."

As Misato's deep in thought, Kaworu's focus is on Gendo while smiling for a brief moment and then notices out of the corner of his eyes that Misato's looking at him. After that, Kaworu looks directly at Misato with a small amount of concern showing. "Is there something wrong, Colonel Katsuragi?"

Misato makes a slightly surprised expression for a moment while being freed from her train of thought. She then sincerely smiles at Kaworu with her eyes closed while waving both of her hands in front of her in a reassuring gesture. "Don't worry about it, Kaworu." She then extends her right hand towards him while lowering the other hand as she's looking at him. "Welcome back."

Kaworu stares at Misato's hand while being a bit stunned at her sudden actions. Afterwards, he smirks while firmly grabbing onto her hand with his right and contentedly looks up at her. "Thank you for accepting me back." He then realizes something while his eyes widen slightly. Right after that, Kaworu leans a bit towards Misato while relaxing his expression and says with a composed tone, "By the way, there is something I have to tell everyone."

Misato was about to respond back to Kaworu with a hint of curiosity being displayed, but she's interrupted when a sudden, large tremor is felt followed by NERV's emergency alarm going off.

This surprises everyone in Gendo's office for a moment. Gendo then receives a call from Maya as she tells him that multiple Evas have been spotted at the outskirts of Tokyo-03. After he gets off the phone, he looks towards Misato and the others with a serious look. Without needing to say anything, they understood immediately what he wanted from them. They all then exit the room while leaving Gendo and Fuyutsuki behind.

They quickly get to Central Dogma and see what's happening on the main screen, which displays four Evas that look exactly alike. They're currently progressing through the city as they're causing destruction to the buildings that weren't able to retract in time with a black, Progressive Long-Sword that resembles an angel's wing. The SEELE Evas look just like Unit 01 with the only difference being that they're the color black instead of purple while having green stripes throughout their body. Also, each Eva has a number from 09 to 12 on their forehead that's the color green. *Due to this, they will be referred as SEELE Eva 09, 10, 11 and 12. The reason for this will be revealed at some point in the episode*

Misato stands in her usual spot as she's worried for a moment while watching the enemy Evas on the main screen. She then says with her chin lowered a little as her eyes are still focused on the screen while being very serious, "Looks like our vacation is over." She's then filled with concern and annoyance. "But why do they all look like Unit 01?"

Kaworu walks up to the left of Misato with his hands in his pockets as he's looking at the main screen as well. After that, he gazes at Misato out of the corner of his eyes with calmness being displayed. "Those are SEELE's final Dummy Plug Evas. They were to be used during their last attack on NERV."

Misato looks at Kaworu with a bit of surprise brimming. "Does that mean...?"

Kaworu slowly shakes his head in response due to knowing what Misato's concern is. "There is no need for worry. If this was indeed their final attack, they also would have sent their Unit Evas." He gazes at the main screen again. "And considering that all the losses they have just sustained, it is safe to assume that they have devised another plan of attack." He then becomes quite concerned while saying with a slightly concerned tone, "But if that is the case, then I have no idea what they could be planning now."

Kaji stands to the left of Kaworu while facing him with a serious expression. "Can you at least tell us why those Evas look like Unit 01?"

Kaworu calmly turns his head to look at Kaji. "As I said before, they were meant for the last attack. Their purpose was to help start 4th Impact just as the Mass Production Series did for the 3rd Impact."

Kaji changes his focus by turning his head to the left to watch the main screen. "But you just said they wouldn't do that without their Unit Evas." He then shifts his eyes to look at Kaworu again. "So they must be using them for some other reason."

Kaworu nods at Kaji with no real change to his demeanor. "Indeed." He then turns his attention to the main screen with suspicion being displayed. "The only question is... What exactly are they planning to achieve with all of this?"

Misato stares at Kaworu while having heard what he said with concern showing on her face and then turns towards Hyuga with a decent amount of seriousness. "How long until the pilots arrive?"

Hyuga responds with his eyes locked onto his screen as he's rapidly typing, "It will take them a while. They have just been retrieved by our agents at their school. It will be about ten minutes until they get here" He turns his chair towards the left to look at Misato with a slightly concerned expression as he had stopped typing. "What should we do until they arrive? We can't afford to take a lot of damage from those Evas."

Misato folds her arms, lowers her head and thinks, "That's a good question. I would normally order to have our defense system buy us time, but that almost never helps against even ONE enemy." She then peers at the main screen while thinking, "There's no way it would do anything against those four while they're together."

Gendo randomly appears at his usual spot with a serious look being displayed. In the meantime, Fuyutsuki's to his right while they're both standing as Gendo says with a stern tone, "Colonel."

Misato quickly turns around to face Gendo with both curiosity and surprise taking over. "Yes, Commander Ikari?"

Gendo states with the same stern tone, "I would like for Nagisa to pilot Unit 04 to buy us time until the other pilots arrive."

Misato's surprised by Gendo's request, not only because he wants Kaworu to pilot, but for the fact that he requested it instead of ordering it. She then becomes a bit concern while responding, "But, Commander! You just said not too long ago that we need to have Kaworu tested first! Even though we know he's quite capable from past experience, we can't just send him out in Unit 04! And we have to take into consideration what affect it will have on the other pilots if they show up, and see him..."

Gendo interrupts Misato by yelling out with intensity, "Colonel!"

Due to Gendo's sudden outburst, Misato's taken back while being stunned for a moment as she doesn't shift her attention away even a little from him. After gaining Misato's attention, Gendo continues to say with intensity while maintaining his composure, "Listen very closely because you need to understand something. We are in a predicament that can't be avoided. None of the other pilots are here. We are being attack and the only way we can insure our survival is to trust Nagisa with Unit 04. We had already accepted him back, and even though we wanted to test him out first, we currently don't have that luxury anymore."

At the same time Gendo says that, Misato's in shock while still looking at Gendo as he talks. Also, Kaworu and the others are paying close attention to Gendo as he now says, "I have requested for you to allow Nagisa to pilot. If you have a reason other than the ones you just mentioned OR involving the pilots' reaction to him being here and piloting Unit 04, state it now. If not, do your job, Colonel!"

Misato pauses for a moment, stunned by everything Gendo had just said and then regains her composure while taking in a deep breath. After doing that, Misato turns towards Kaworu with seriousness showing. "Kaworu. Can you pilot Unit 04...?"

In response, Kaworu looks at Misato while being slightly surprised and then snaps out of it so he can nod at her with a light smile. After seeing Kaworu do that, Misato takes a step towards him with determination radiating. "I wasn't finished... Can you pilot Unit 04..." She places her right hand on the middle of her chest while extending out her left arm towards the side. "And honestly tell me that you will protect everyone with your life?!"

Kaworu's even more surprised by this statement from Misato while pulling his head back a bit. Right after that, he confidently smiles at her and takes a step towards her. "If you allow me to pilot Unit 04, I will definitely protect everyone with my life."

Misato stares Kaworu down while thinking, "I believe him..." She then smiles with content radiating from her and thinks, "Nero really convinced him to protect us... He can now rest in peace." Misato quickly turns her attention towards the others in Central Dogma and says with a commanding tone, "Then let's get Unit 04 ready!"

Kaji smiles as he thinks, "That's my girl." He then turns to face the others, does a fist pump with his right hand and yells out with a mildly joyful tone, "You heard her! Now get to it!"

Central Dogma's personnel all nod in agreement and quickly get the necessary preparations ready for Unit 04 while Gendo watches on with a pleased demeanor. He then sits down in his seat and gets into his usual pose while calmly watching the others work.

Fuyutsuki smiles while looking at Gendo out of the corner of his left eye and thinks, "Though that was unusual for him, it was exactly what Katsuragi needed to hear."

Misato returns her attention towards Kaworu again and orders with a commanding tone, "Get going, Kaworu. It won't take long to have Unit 04 ready."

Kaworu calmly nods at her in response and then quickly turns away from her. He runs off towards the back of Central Dogma and exits without another word being uttered. Misato watched Kaworu leave with her body facing towards the main screen and now focuses back to it while thinking, "All I need from him is to stall, but... There's the possibility he'll do more than just stalling." She then smiles while being quite pleased.

With that thought completed, Misato and the others in Central Dogma keep a close eye on the four SEELE Evas that continue to destroy everything in sight while still being concerned about why these Evas, that were meant for the final assault, are already making their grand appearance. Meanwhile, Kaworu quickly gets his plugsuit on in the boy's changing room, which is the same plugsuit he faced Nero with, and heads towards the cage after putting on the brain-waive transmitters.

Before Kaworu reaches Unit 04, Central Dogma's personnel were able to successfully configured it to Kaworu's mentality with the help of previous documentation they had on Kaworu during the last time he synchronized with an Eva. Once Kaworu reaches Unit 04, he gets in the entry plug with calmness being displayed on his face as he sits and waits to be launched. After a couple of minutes pass, Central Dogma finished the preparations to launch Unit 04 and quickly launch Unit 04 at a safe distance away from the four Evas while facing towards them.

After gaining some footing due to some aftershock from the launch, Kaworu has Unit 04 step off the launch pad while still being quite close to it. Then, the launch pad rapidly retracts into the ground, and with it leaving, five buildings surface from the ground one after the other. Each one opening up to reveal a different weapon.

Kaworu looks at his options from behind himself and decides to make Unit 04 grab onto the first building that's towards Unit 04's left with its left hand. The weapon Kaworu had chose was an Eva-sized, fully automatic ACR gun. The silver Eva then quickly points the gun at the four enemy Evas while being placed close to Unit 04's face to take aim.

Kaworu watches the four Evas as they stopped wreaking havoc and thinks to himself with a profound level of calmness, "I highly doubt this will do anything, but I would like to see how they would react.

Pending on what they do, I can analyze their capabilities to a small extent." He lets out a small smirk while saying to himself, "It's better than nothing."

Misato's voice suddenly comes through the intercom with a stern tone being present while sounding a bit sad, "Kaworu. Any action you take is your decision. Lately, I haven't been as useful as I used to. So all I can do is watch over you and believe in you."

Kaworu nods while still being focused on the enemy Evas and responds with his usual polite tone. "It is alright, Katsuragi. You can rely on me."

Misato smiles to herself while watching the main screen that's displaying Unit 04's image and nods to herself from being pleased with Kaworu's answer. She then makes a determined expression as her arms are crossed and yells out with a commanding tone, "Then show those bastards how it's done!"

Kaworu nods in response to Misato's order and quickly opens fire on the four enemy Evas. As a result, SEELE Eva 11 suddenly dashes towards the right while firmly holding onto its sword in its right hand. Also, SEELE Eva 10 takes a few quick steps forward and deploys a large, black A.T. Field that effortlessly blocks the bullets.

Seeing that causes Kaworu's eyes to widen out of shock while thinking, "A black A.T. Field...? I did not know those Evas can produce such a thing."

Suddenly, SEELE Eva 11 had glided towards Unit 04 with its Prog Sword over its head while holding onto it with both hands and gets ready to swing it downward. In reaction to SEELE Eva 11 appearing, Kaworu's a bit startled, but quickly regains his composure while making Unit 04 leap backwards and barely dodges the enemy's sword. As Unit 04 dodged, SEELE Eva 11's sword hits the ground, but unfortunately for Kaworu, it isn't discourage as it immediately picks up its sword towards its right side and dashes towards Unit 04 again.

Misato sees the enemy Eva's action and shouts with worry brimming, "Kaworu! Deploy your A.T. Field!"

Kaworu quickly retorts to Misato's command with calmness while landing his Eva, "That will not work." He then leans forward to push on the controls, which results in Unit 04 swiftly ducking as SEELE Eva 11 was swinging its sword in a sideways angle from Unit 04's left and misses due to Kaworu's quick reaction to the attack. Although once again, SEELE Eva 11 isn't discourage as it gains some footing with its left foot to the ground and turns the swords blade towards Unit 04. It then swings the sword towards Unit 04's right this time as it's still ducking down.

Misato yells out again, but this time with irritation in her voice, "I said deploy your A.T. Field, Kaworu!"

Kaworu ignores Misato's command while making Unit 04 drop its gun to the ground. Unit 04 then swiftly sways backwards with its left leg lifted off the ground and successfully dodges. After that, Kaworu promptly makes Unit 04 disconnect its umbilical cable and elegantly jumps to the air with the help of its right foot pushing off the ground and its A.T. Field to help it go higher up into the air. At the same time, Unit 04 does a multiple revolution back-flip.

Dummy Eva 11 quickly stops its momentum and turns its attention to the airborne Unit 04. It then bends its knees and suddenly jumps up to pursue Unit 04 while pulling the sword behind its head with the right hand firmly holding it. Kaworu then sees the enemy heading towards him as he makes Unit 04 face it and mutters, "This Eva is quite difficult to deal with. No matter what I do, it continues to follow me and try its best to land a blow on Unit 04."

Suddenly, Misato's voice comes through the intercom with urgency and panic, "Kaworu! Behind you!"

In response to Misato's cry, Kaworu hurriedly turns his head to the left to look behind himself and is a bit startled when he sees that Dummy Eva 12's above him while descending towards Unit 04. As Dummy Eva 12 descends, it aims the point of its sword's blade down towards Unit 04 while holding the sword upside down. It then pulls the sword over its head with both hands and quickly swings it down to strike Unit 04 with intensity.

Kaworu's a bit stunned for a moment while watching Dummy Eva 12 head towards him. He then does a quick double-take to look at Dummy Eva 11 and sees it's about to come into contact with Unit 04.

After doing that, Kaworu quickly thinks on his feet and makes Unit 04 produce its A.T. Field, but not to block. He does this to make Unit 04 push-off the A.T. Field with its hands, so that it can successfully dodge the duo attack by going to the left.

Misato smiles out of content by what Kaworu just did while thinking, "Perfect! Now they'll attack each other! They're bound to cause the other some decent damage."

Misato's promptly surprised while her hope of the two enemy Eva's attacking each other dies. This is due to both Evas suddenly stopping in mid-air as their blades were inches away from striking each other's head. They then slowly move away from each other a little and face towards the direction Unit 04 went. This causes Misato to quickly uncross her arms and yells out in disbelief while taking a step forward, "How the hell?! Are they...?! Are they actually flying?!"

Ritsuko watches from the middle of the MAGI system while being in shock due to what she's witnessing. She then lightly grits with teeth with irritation brimming as she thinks, "I don't believe it! SEELE actually created Evas that levitate and fly without wings!"

With that said, Ritsuko tightly clenches her hands and asks underneath her breath with her irritation notably increasing, "What advancements have they made while we spent our time repairing the Evas and recreating previously destroyed Evas?!"

Meanwhile, Kaworu lands Unit 04 onto the ground while being at a small distance behind the buildings that have weapons in them. He then looks towards the buildings and makes Unit 04 quickly dash towards them. Fortunately, the silver Eva reaches the buildings with no interference and effortlessly jumps over them to be in position for Kaworu to choose a weapon since the opening to the buildings is in the front.

After giving his options a quick glance, Kaworu has Unit 04 grab the weapon in the middle building, which is a Progressive Chainsaw that must be held up with both hands due to the weapons weight and destructive force when active. Kaworu turns his attention back towards where the two airborne Evas are located, which is above Unit 04, and quickly realizes that they are no longer there.

That causes Kaworu to become quite concern while thinking, "They are gone." His eyes instantly widen as he hears a humming sound coming from his left and then quickly looks towards that direction.

Then, without warning, the buildings that held the weapons while being to the left of Unit 04 are suddenly demolished. As they crumble, SEELE Eva 12 appeared through the rubble and collides its right shoulder into Unit 04's stomach while causing Unit 04 to let go of the Prog Chainsaw. This results in it grabbing a hold of Unit 04 while both Evas fly over the ground's surface and head straight towards SEELE Eva 10 since it stands in front of SEELE Eva 09. As SEELE Eva 10 observes Unit 04 being brought towards it, it gets itself ready to strike with the Prog Sword in its left hand.

Misato's greatly concerned as she watches Unit 04 being forcibly carried towards another enemy Eva and shouts out with a distraught tone, "Kaworu!"

Kaworu overhears Misato's cry with his hair shadowing his eyes as he says softly to himself with a smirk, "Good lord, Katsuragi. You told me you would have faith in me, and yet, all you do is unnecessarily worry about me." He then reveals his eyes to show them filled with determination and says happily in a low volume, "Well, at least I now understand a little bit more of what it means to have someone care about you." Kaworu chuckles.

Right as SEELE Eva 12 reaches SEELE Eva 10 with Unit 04 in its grasp, Kaworu makes Unit 04 forcibly break SEELE Eva 12's hold by grabbing a hold of its arms with both hands and pulling them open. After doing this, Unit 04 pushes SEELE Eva 12 away and this causes it to go towards the right from Unit 04. Kaworu then makes Unit 04 harshly land on the ground while the momentum sends its back towards SEELE Eva 11.

In response to Unit 04 still heading towards it, SEELE Eva 10 pulls its left arm back with the right hand on its wrist while getting ready to thrusts the point of the sword's blade into Unit 04's back. Kaworu sees this with a slightly serious expression while narrowing his eyes as he leans forward. SEELE Eva 10 then thrusts its sword towards Unit 04 and right when the sword was about to pierce its back, Unit 04 suddenly jumps up and does an arching back-flip while dodging the attack.

Although Kaworu had no time to take a breather because when Unit 04 faced towards the ground after flipping backwards, SEELE Eva 09's face miraculously appears right in front of Unit 04's face. After doing that, the enemy Eva swings its sword in a left diagonal angle while holding it in its left hand.

Misato hurriedly yells out in a panic while pulling on her hair with both hands, "Kaworu! For the love of God, use your-!"

Kaworu quickly cuts her off while smiling with a hint of enjoyment. "I know, Katsuragi!" He then deploys Unit 04's A.T. Field and it suddenly pushes SEELE Eva 09 into the ground while causing the ground to crack underneath it with some smoke rising up from it.

Misato lets go of her hair while still having them near her head as she's quite surprised. She then smiles while feeling relieved that he was able to counter the enemy Evas attack. After that, Unit 04 lands on the ground behind SEELE Eva 09 as the enemy's still lying on its back with the smoke having already dissipated.

After seeing Unit 04 land on the ground, Misato moves her arms to fold them together while smiling in a curious way. "Now tell me, Kaworu... Why didn't you deploy the A.T. Field when I first ordered you?"

Kaworu replies to Misato's question while focusing on the down enemy Eva while SEELE Eva 10 turns to face him, "The reason is that my synchronization at the time wasn't high enough for the A.T. Field to be effective."

Misato's confused by what she just heard while thinking, "His synchronization wasn't high enough?" She then turns her body to face Maya and asks, "What's Kaworu's current sync ratio?"

Maya immediately turns her chair to the right to look at Misato while being quite astonished. "His sync ratio... Is over... 125%!"

Misato's eyes promptly widen as she pulls her body back a little and then quickly regains her composure while taking a step towards Maya. "Has Unit 04 gone berserk?!"

Maya slowly shakes her head while still being astonished. "No, Colonel." She then turns her head at her screen with a moderately serious expression. "It's been gradually increasing from 85% the moment Unit 04 reached the surface."

Surprise completely overtakes Misato's face as she thinks, "Amazing... He can make Unit 04 reach that synchronization without making it go berserk." She then turns her attention back to the main screen while thinking, "That would explain why we didn't receive notification of Unit 04's timer for its reserved power. When a pilot's synchronization goes over 100%, it reaches within itself for uncertain amounts of power to continue to function."

With that thought completed, Misato lowers her head a little while still looking at the main screen and says underneath her breath, "Now that I think about... What Kaworu's doing isn't much different from what Nero did with Unit 03. Even though it still went berserk, Nero maintain so much control that it appeared like it didn't even go berserk. But that power can't possibly last forever."

Hyuga suddenly yells out while interrupting Misato's train of thought with a composed tone, "The other pilots have already arrived! Asuka and Shinji are in position, but..."

Misato looks at Hyuga with a bit of concern. "What is it?"

Hyuga turns his chair to the left to look at Misato with a slightly sad expression. "Kensuke's causing a bit of a scene since his Eva isn't there. Currently, the other children that aren't going to be piloting are trying to calm him down."

Sadness overtakes Misato's being due to what Hyuga just said and then says firmly while giving him a serious look, "Notify the children that don't have an Eva to pilot to come here immediately. That includes Kensuke."

Hyuga nods in response and then turns his attention back to his screen. After seeing Hyuga redirect his focus, Misato looks at the main screen with some concern while thinking, "I'll have to do my best to calm Kensuke down and tell him that we'll talk about Kaworu's involvement later." She then gets irritated a little while thinking, "Although, Asuka's going to be the most difficult to keep calm. She'll want answers right away."

While Misato worries about the children's reaction, Kaworu patiently waits to see what will be the enemies' next move. At the moment, all four had regrouped while being a small distance in front of Kaworu as their facing towards Unit 04. As he's watching them, Kaworu thinks to himself with a pretty high level of concern showing while firmly holding onto the controls with his back against the seat, "My sync ratio is at the point where it can successfully nullify their A.T. Field, but this Evas are well equipped with those swords that can penetrate the A.T. Field if it is not strong enough. They can also fly like Unit 06, but their speed are not in the same league. With that in mind, I can now fight more seriously."

Kaworu pauses for a brief moment as he makes a suspicious expression with his head lightly tilted to the right and mutters, "But there is something that has been bothering me... The Dummy Plug that is used for those Evas are the ones with my mentality, but by the looks of it, they are performing in an odd manner..." Kaworu then suddenly realizes something as he pulls his head back a little and says softly to himself, "Could it be..."

In the meantime, Aoba turns his attention to Misato with some concern showing. "Colonel, Katsuragi!"

Misato instantly turns her head to look at Aoba with curiosity brimming and says with a composed tone, "What is it?!"

Aoba states with concern remaining, "Unit 01 and 02 are ready, but it seems like there's a problem with Shinji!"

Misato gets quite worried after hearing Aoba say that and asks with a firm tone, "What's the problem?"

The others in the facility focus their attention on Aoba with concern while Gendo and Fuyutsuki look on with no real emotion. Aoba then answers Misato's question with a bit of sadness taking over, "For some reason, Unit 01's not responding to Shinji..."

Misato gasps a little while thinking to herself, "No! It can't be!" She then turns her attention towards the screen and yells out in worry, "Shinji!"

As Misato let out her cry, Shinji's revealed to be in the darkness of Unit 01's entry plug while being curled up into a ball. At the same time, paleness can be seen on Shinji's face while softly saying to himself, "Again... I can't do anything..." Shinji then buries his head into his arms and lap while saying in a slightly louder volume, "Mother... Won't respond... I'm trying to talk to her, but she won't say anything. Is it because I forgot Nero...? Is it because I let him die...?" He grits his teeth momentarily and then yells out to himself in distress, "Why?! Why won't she talk to ME?!"

With Shinji in his current condition, Misato is very worried as the other children, who aren't in the position to pilot enter Central Dogma while still wearing their school uniform. Leading them, Kensuke marches up to Misato while she's looking at him with a hint of concern due to her expecting what's about to come out of his mouth. Once Kensuke reaches Misato, he says to her with an upset tone, "Misato! What's going on?!"

Kensuke looks up at the main screen and sees that Unit 04 is out in the battlefield without him. This causes him to become even more upset as he turns back to face Misato and says while pointing at the main screen with his left hand, "Who the hell is piloting my Eva?!"

Misato gives Kensuke a sad look while facing him and says with a somber tone, "You see... Kensuke..."

Mari suddenly interrupts while stepping in front of Kensuke and looks at Misato with a lot of worry emitting from her person. "Never mind that! What's wrong with Shinji?! I heard you yell out his name from the facility's intercom!"

Kensuke looks at Mari from behind her with irritation. "Mari! I was here first!"

Mari turns her head to the left and retorts with a harsh tone. "Like that matters! I need to know what's wrong with Shinji!" She then turns to face Kensuke while placing each hand over the other and puts them over the center of her chest and says with a sad tone, "He's been hurting since Nero died. He kept blaming himself for not remembering and he thinks he's a terrible person." Mari turns her attention back to Misato with her hands down to her sides and asks with a distraught tone, "So what's going on with Shinji?!"

Misato's consumed with sorrow as Mari stares at her intently while waiting for a response. Misato then turns her head away from Mari and says with a sad tone while staring at the floor that's to her right, "Unit 01 isn't... Responding to him..."

Mari's in shock as a result of what Misato just told her as are the other children who are looking at Misato and Mari. Suddenly, Kaworu's voice comes through the intercom with a calm tone. "Katsuragi, is the channel to communicate with other Evas active?"

After hearing Kaworu's voice, Rei's overcome with surprise as she thinks to herself while standing between Hikari and Touji, "That voice..."

Misato quickly looks towards the main screen that still displays Unit 04 and the enemy Evas with concern resonating within her eyes. She then answers, "Yes. But why do you want to know? Do you want to say something to Shinji?"

Kaworu responds with his eyes focused on the enemy Evas while he leans a bit forward, "You shall soon see what is the purpose of my question."

Due to Kaworu's response, Misato becomes a bit curious while thinking to herself, "What other reason could there be?"

Kaworu opens up the channel and says towards the enemy Evas with a mild smile, "Good afternoon, gentlemen. It has been roughly two weeks since our last encounter."

As a result of Kaworu's statement, everyone in Central Dogma are surprised while watching the main screen. Kaworu then waits for a response while thinking with a calm smile, "I know it is you guys who are piloting. This means Keel's technological team have finally accomplished it. They have accomplished..."

Before Kaworu had the chance to finish that thought, a sudden voice comes through the intercom from SEELE Eva 09 and says with an arrogant tone, "Someone sure is smart! And I'm actually surprised that you did what Keel was afraid you would do! You joined NERV and became a traitor once again, Tabris!"

Suddenly, a male voice from SEELE Eva 11 comes through the open channel and says with a calm tone, "This explains why Unit 04 has been able to keep up with us. It's inconceivable that Kensuke Aida would have been able to do so well against us by himself."

Misato becomes very upset while yelling out, "Not again! And to make it worst, two Evas have a pilot!" Concern then takes over while Misato utters to herself, "I bet the other two have pilots too."

Mari steps in after hearing what Misato said due to them being next to each other and says with a serious tone, "That's not all. I recognize that voice."

Misato and the others immediately look at Mari with curiosity and concern due to her statement. "You do?!"

Mari responds while being a bit irritated. "Yup. I've met him a long time ago and I really don't like him or any of those old guys." She then tightly clenches both hands into fists while narrowing her eyes. "If he's piloting an Eva, which I have no clue how the hell he's even doing that, then the other three must have members piloting too."

Confusion can now be noted on Misato's expression after hearing the last part Mari said and asks with a hint of concern, "Members?" Her eyes instantly widen out of realization while giving out a small gasp and then says with horror, "You don't mean-?!"

Kaworu suddenly cuts in to answer Misato's question while firmly staring the enemy Eva's down, "Yes, Katsuragi. Your suspicions are correct. The four pilots of those Evas are... Members of SEELE."

A man in his late 50s chuckles while sitting inside an entry plug with dozens of plugs attached to his naked body as he's focused on Unit 04. The man even has a couple of plugs installed into his face as there's a number "09" engraved into his forehead while his back is against the seat. He then says to himself with a demented smile, "It doesn't matter that they know we're piloting the Evas... All that matters is that we accomplish our goal..." His face fills with intensity. "And I will make sure our goal is accomplished no matter what the cost! I swear on my position as the 9th member of SEELE and on my name! The name of Fujitaka Giichi!"

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Sweet! I finally finished this episode! Seriously, I have been slacking off for a LONG time when it comes to writing. Fortunately, I'm working my way back into it, but I'm still going to be a bit sluggish. Now I know you guys have some questions and most likely the next episode will answer them. First things first, I'm just letting you all know in advance that I won't be giving much description on the SEELE members that are piloting the Unit 01 look-alike Evas. They just vary too much, but I will give you names to differentiate while revealing what number each one is and I'll reveal how they're able to pilot Evas at some point. So look forward to that. Thank you all for those who have continued to read my story. You guys are awesome.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	23. Episode 23

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

Here's the continuation from where I left off in the previous episode. Some interesting developments during this episode. Another promise a certain boy made that has no recorded stability in the story. That should make you guys quite curious for a while. The answers to many questions that I've been leaving unanswered. Hell, this is really starting to feel like an Evangelion Fan Fiction. *Laughs* I seriously thank Hideaki Anno, Gainax and whoever else had a hand in creating Evangelion. You guys own it, not me. Can't wait to see what comes next from all of your brilliant minds. Enjoy the story, everyone.

Episode 23: Rising Up From The Despair That Clouds Your Soul

With the realization of the four enemy Evas having SEELE members as pilots, everyone in Central Dogma are momentarily stunned. In the meantime, Kaworu maintains his focus on the SEELE Evas as he analyze the entire situation and contemplates about what he should do. As Kaworu does this, Fuyutsuki and Gendo continue to be located at Gendo's counter-like desk with his eyes locked on the main screen with an intense stare while maintaining his usual pose.

Fuyutsuki finally turns to Gendo after being in a trance-like state due to the surprise he felt after hearing SEELE # 09's voice. At the same time, he placed his left hand on Gendo's chair for leverage as he leans towards him a bit. With Fuyutsuki's attention towards Gendo, he whispers to him with a hint of concern in his voice while trying to maintain his composure, "Ikari. There's no doubt about it. That was Fujitaka Giichi talking. He's seated 9th in SEELE."

Gendo calmly responds to Fuyutsuki with his eyes still focused on the main screen's image of Unit 04 and the SEELE Evas. "That goes without saying, Kozo."

Fuyutsuki becomes a bit upset as he yells out in a whisper so that none of the others hear him, "Then tell me, do you have any explanation to how they're piloting Evas?! Everyone knows that's impossible for any adult to accomplish!"

Gendo slowly turns his gaze down to his desk with no emotion being displayed as he says, "Keel once mentioned a method to have adults pilot the Evangelion. Though it was disregarded due to the results of the experimental trials that were developed and monitored by Keel. They didn't even come close to resulting well."

Fuyutsuki begins to worry a little while leaning a tad bit closer to Gendo. "Is there a possibility that Keel could have managed this method?"

Gendo returns his focus to the main screen and says with a moderately concerned tone, "If he indeed found a way to accomplish what he couldn't half a decade ago, then we might be in trouble." He then looks at Fuyutsuki out of the corner of his eyes and says with a bland tone, "Remember, the old men of SEELE have gone through physical training in the earlier stages of their lives that have not yet left their memories. For that very reason, they're to be fear and not taken likely." Gendo watches on towards Central Dogma's personnel.

Meanwhile, Misato's very worried due to the revelation of the enemy Evas having SEELE members piloting them while briefly biting her right thumb. She then removes the thumb from her mouth, puts that hand down while looking towards Aoba and says with a firm tone, "Right now, we can't be worrying too much on the details of HOW Evangelions are being piloted by members of SEELE. Asuka's ready, right?"

Aoba nods in response while focusing on his screen as he quickly types on the keys. "Everything involving Unit 02 and its pilot are set up without a hitch. Unit 01 on the other hand..."

Misato cuts him off with fierceness in her voice. "Never mind Shinji. We'll give him a breather so he can compose himself." She turns her attention to the main screen while crossing her arms and says with a composed tone, "We can at least give him five or ten minutes. Until then, have Unit 02 launch next to Unit 04. That way she can give Kaworu a hand."

Rei looks at Misato with a large amount of concern after hearing what had just been said. She then quickly rushes towards Misato's right since Mari and Kensuke are to Misato's left. Once she reaches Misato, Rei faces her and says with a dumbfounded expression, "I knew I recognized his voice. The person who is piloting Unit 04 is Kaworu Nagisa, correct?"

Misato turns her attention towards Rei with no change to her impression and answers Rei's question with a calm tone, "Yes, Rei. He's our new addition to the team."

That statement catches Rei and the other children off guard for a moment. Then, after regaining his composure, Kensuke yells out from behind Misato since she's facing towards Rei and does this will being quite upset, "Misato!"

Misato hurriedly faces Kensuke with concern arising from within her while Rei watches from behind Misato with the same amount of concern. "Kensuke?"

Kensuke replies while pleading a little as his arms are outstretched towards his sides. "Please, don't tell me that he's replacing me!" Kensuke pauses for a brief second to lower his left arm while placing his right hand over his chest and passionately states, "You can't do that to me! You can't do the same thing you did to Touji to ME!" He then fiercely throws his right hand towards the side as it's curled up into a fist and yells out, "I'm begging you! Please don't do that!"

Misato gives Kensuke a sympathetic look while uncrossing her arms and thinks, "This is exactly what I was afraid of." She then composes herself while becoming quite serious as she takes a step towards Kensuke. Afterwards, Misato says to him while choosing her words carefully so she doesn't upset him, "Listen... The reason Kaworu is piloting Unit 04 was because we needed him to protect us. It isn't official that he's going to take your place, Kensuke."

After hearing that, Kensuke's eyes widen due to him being surprised by those words. Misato then continues with the same tone while placing her left hand on Kensuke's right shoulder as she smiling a little, "Just remember, you'll always be an important member and you've done a good job so far against SEELE."

Kensuke's a bit stunned for a moment due to him being entranced by Misato's caring words and then smiles with a hint of content while nodding at her. "Thank you, Misato."

Misato replies back with a sharp nod. "You're welcome, Kensuke."

Rei sees this and becomes quite relieved that Misato was able to calm Kensuke down. Suddenly, Kaworu's voice comes through the intercom and he says with a composed tone, "Katsuragi... Soryu will be accompanying me, correct?"

Hearing Kaworu's voice causes Rei to snap her head towards the main screen with an unsure look on her face. Misato follows suit, turns her complete attention towards the main screen and then says with a firm tone, "Yeah, she'll be there in about a minute."

Kaworu nods to himself while still being focused on the SEELE Evas and then says with a slight smile appearing on his face, "That is perfect. Even though having Shinji join as well would have greatly improved are odds, I believe with the help of Soryu, this battle will tilt to our favor."

Asuka's voice suddenly comes through Kaworu's intercom with her usual confident tone being present while sounding a bit strained due to resistance she's feeling from the Eva rising to the surface. "Thanks for the compliment and all, but that goes without saying!"

That comment causes Kaworu to turn his eyes towards the right without any changes to his demeanor. At the moment Kaworu did that, a building shoots up from the ground and quickly opens as Unit 02 ascended to the surface with quite a bit of force. After that, Asuka says with a hint of annoyance while appearing on Kaworu's right side screen, "Hey! Angel-boy!"

Kaworu's taken back a bit by what Asuka just said while pulling slightly away from the screen that's showing Asuka. "Angel-boy?"

At the same time, Fujitaka Giichi *SEELE # 9* watches on with a hint of arrogance being on his person as he just saw Unit 02 appear. He then turns to the left and says towards SEELE Eva 12 with a sly smile, "Looks like things are going to get more interesting, don't you think... Aiko?"

A man in his mid 50s turns to look at SEELE Eva 09 while being also naked with countless plugs attached into his body. This man goes by the name Aiko Kashima and he has the number "12" engraved into his forehead just like Fujitaka. He wears thick glass that are oval-shape and shows no emotion as he responds to his fellow member. "Sometimes you amaze me, Fujitaka. You say things like, 'I will make sure our goal is accomplished no matter what the cost.', but then you go out and say something so childish like that."

Fujitaka chuckles in a menacing way while turning his attention back towards Unit 02 and Unit 04. After doing that, he says with a relaxed tone, "That's the way I am." His face is then overcome with fierceness as he says with a cold tone, "But to be childish at this age really isn't acceptable, is it?"

SEELE # 11 image appears on Fujitaka's left side screen and he's revealed to be a man in his mid 60s with long white hair. His body is covered with wrinkles that would make a person think he's a lot older as he's also covered in plugs. SEELE # 11 says to Fujitaka with a stern tone while he lies motionless on the entry plug's seat, " It sure isn't, Fujitaka. I'm glad you're finally accepting that."

Fujitaka glances towards SEELE # 11 and says with a smirk, "I'm happy you feel that way, Mr. Hirainu"

Mr. Hirainu nods with content and then his image disappears. At that very moment, Fujitaka's left side screen appears with a man who's roughly the same age as Mr. Hirainu, but doesn't look like he's that old. The man has the number "10" engraved on his forehead as he's the last of the four to make an appearance and says with a hint of irritation in his voice, "Enough with the chatter! Now that we know Tabris is the one piloting Unit 04, we can't be underestimating him! Especially with Unit 02 joining the fight!"

The other three members give SEELE Eva 10 a quick glance while knowing what its pilot said is true. They then nod and return their attention towards Unit 04 and Unit 02. In the meantime that the four members were talking among themselves, Asuka had the urge to ask Kaworu something that was on all the children's mind since finding out that Kaworu had returned. This brought up an intense atmosphere in Central Dogma while they're all focused on the main screen that now displays both Kaworu and Asuka's image towards the right side of the main screen. This is so that they can still keep an eye on the enemy Evas.

Kaworu gives Asuka an emotionless look and says to her with a calm tone, "Would you mind repeating what you just asked me? I did not comprehend it."

A hint of annoyance starts to rise within Asuka as she lightly grits her teeth due to Kaworu asking to repeats herself. She then leans towards the left side screen, which is the one that shows Kaworu, and yells out, "Alright, Angel-boy! I'll repeat myself! I asked you, 'Why on Earth did you come back'?!"

Misato's cuts in through the intercom while saying with a stern tone, "Do not worry about that, Asuka. I shall explain afterwards."

In response to hearing what Misato said, Asuka looks upwards and yells out while being a bit upset, "But Misato! I don't know whether to trust him or-!"

Kaworu suddenly cuts Asuka off with his usual polite tone while sincerely smiling. "Nero requested me to return."

That statement from Kaworu causes Asuka's heart to skip a beat as she quickly turns her attention towards him while being in shock. In the meantime, Kaworu continues to smile at Asuka with sincerity brimming and then turns his attention back towards the enemy Evas.

After seeing Kaworu turn away from her, Asuka drops her head down while pressing her lips together as she's very content to hear Nero's name mentioned. Afterwards, she snaps her head up with determination taking over and yells out with a smile, "That's good enough for me!"

Due to Asuka's outburst, the children in Central Dogma are stunned for a moment. Misato is also stunned, but quickly regains her composure while smiling a little. Her eyes then widen a little as she remembers something. Misato then turns her attention towards Ritsuko, who's next to the center MAGI system, and says with a hint of concern, "Dr. Akagi. What do the MAGI have on the enemy Evas?"

Ritsuko rapidly types on her laptop as she's holding it with her left arm while facing towards the MAGI. She then stops typing and turns to Misato with a distraught expression as she says, "There's not much information The only things we have on them is that their able to fly because of an anti-gravitational component that allows them to take flight!"

After saying that, Ritsuko turns her attention back towards her computer and says with a bit of composure, "Also, the swords they're using are like the Progressive Knives, but because of how powerful their A.T. Fields are, those swords can easily cut through!"

Misato grits her teeth out of annoyance and then turns to look at the main screen. After doing that, she says with irritation in her voice, "Alright! We're really in a tight spot!" She then crosses her arms while dropping her head down to look at the floor and says with a moderately composed tone, "I have to come up with a strategy to take those guys down... But right now the odds aren't on our favor."

Hearing what Misato had just said makes Kaworu respond with a chuckle, which that action causes Misato's eyes to widen a little and quickly peers at the screen while being a bit confused. "Kaworu... Did you just laugh?"

Kaworu nods while tightening his grip on the controls and slightly leans forward. "Indeed, Katsuragi. The reason I laughed was because you said the odds were not in our favor."

Asuka gives Kaworu a skeptical look while tilting her head to the right and says, "What the hell are you on? Of course the odds are against us."

Kaworu slowly shakes his head in disagreement while maintaining his focuses. "That is where you are wrong."

Both Misato and Asuka are confused by what Kaworu meant. Then, as if predicting their confusion, Kaworu answers with confidence brimming. "The odds were against us when I was fighting them by myself, but with Soryu, I have a strategy that will allow us to defeat two of their members at once."

Everyone in Central Dogma are quite surprised by Kaworu's words while Asuka's also surprised. Then, Misato regains her composure and asks with a firm tone, "Are you sure about that, Kaworu?"

Kaworu nods with confidence increasing within him. "Indeed." He then turns his attention towards Asuka and asks with a hint of curiosity, "By the way, do you plan on using the Beast Mode, Soryu?"

Asuka looks at Kaworu with irritation due to what he just said. She then turns away from him with her eyes closed and say with a slightly conceded tone, "No way! As if I need to make my Eva go through that to take these losers down!"

Kaworu simply responds with content being displayed on his person. "Good. That is exactly what I wanted to hear."

Asuka instantaneously opens her eyes while they widen out of surprise. Right after that, she snaps her head to look at Kaworu with confusion taking over. "Huh?!"

Kaworu chuckles due to Asuka's reaction and then turns his attention back towards the enemy Evas. "Something like that is not needed. The Beast Mode is to be used as a last resort, and in this situation, there is no use for it." He then smirks while saying with a compassionate tone, "Anyway, Nero said that you love your mother too much to make her suffer like that."

Asuka's in shock after hearing what Kaworu just said while pulling her body back a bit and thinks to herself, "Nero said that!" She then makes an expression of realization as she leans a bit towards Kaworu's image with concern surfacing. "Wait a minute! When did he tell you that?!"

Kaworu ignores her question as he yells out in urgency, "Here they come, Soryu!"

Asuka quickly turns her attention towards the enemy Evas after hearing Kaworu's warning while his image disappears from the side screen. Afterwards, Asuka sees that SEELE Evas 10 and 12 are heading towards Unit 02 with their swords ready to be used as their arms are extended back. Asuka then makes Unit 02 braces itself while expanding out its A.T. Field and thinks to herself with determination being displayed, "Let's see what these guys are made of."

Both Evas are about to come into contact with Unit 02 while SEELE Eva 10's the first one to strike as it thrust the Prog Sword's tip with the full extension of its left arm. Suddenly, Unit 04 steps in front of the path of the attack and deploys its A.T. Field.

As a result, the A.T. Field manages to block the attack while letting out a loud chiming sound. As this happens, Asuka's eyes widen a little from surprise due to her not expecting Kaworu to move Unit 04 in front of her to shield her. She then makes an irritated expression while leaning a bit forward and yells out, "Who the hell do you think you are?! I didn't ask you to do that!"

Kaworu responds with a moderately firm tone while he stares down SEELE Eva 10. "Quick, Soryu! I need you to get the chainsaw that is behind the enemy!"

Asuka's surprised by Kaworu's sudden command for a moment. She's then about respond with some irritation showing, but gets distracted by the sight of SEELE Eva 12 suddenly stepping off SEELE Eva 10's right shoulder with its left foot and jumps over Unit 04. SEELE Eva 12's now right above Unit 02 with its right arm above its head as it's ready to swing the Prog Sword down onto Unit 02.

That doesn't discourage Asuka though as she smiles with confidence returning. "Give it your best shot, Sie St ck Schei e! (You piece of shit)"

Kaworu turns his attention to look behind him to look at Unit 02 and says with concern in his voice, "No, Soryu! You have to dodge it! Unit 02's A.T. Field is neutralized!"

Asuka's eyes widen from shock after hearing what Kaworu just told her. With that in mind, she swiftly makes Unit 02 jump backwards and successfully dodges SEELE Eva 12's attack. This resulted in SEELE Eva 12's sword hitting the ground, which causes a small impact with the ground while a little bit of smoke is created.

After that, SEELE # 12 turns his Eva to face Unit 02, who now is standing at a small distance away and says with a calm tone to Asuka through the channel that remains open, "How fortunate that Tabris was able to warn you. If not, you would have been already defeated, 2nd Child. You owe him your life."

Asuka grits her teeth with rage brimming due to what SEELE # 12 said as she's giving his Eva an intense glare and then shouts out with anger being noted, "What are you on?!" She swings her left arm towards the side. "Even if that attack hits...!" Asuka then places her left hand in front of her while having it clenched into a fist. "There's no way that I would be done in by one attack!" She hurriedly grabs a hold of the left control and passionately yells, "And to tell me I owe Angel-boy my life really pisses me off!"

Kaworu hears what Asuka said with a smile as he's looking behind him while muttering, "I would never imagine that someone would be upset for another's assistance." He then closes his eyes with his head lowered a little. "The Lilin surely are interesting."

SEELE # 10 unexpectedly yells out while leaning forward as he's quite upset due to Kaworu not focusing on him, "You must have a death wish, Tabris! You should know better!" SEELE Eva 10 pulls back its sword over its head and swings down.

Kaworu turns his attention back towards SEELE Eva 10 with a serious demeanor and swiftly makes Unit 04 slightly move to the right. This is because Kaworu had predicted that Unit 04's A.T. Field wouldn't hold up against the Prog Sword, and after it broke through the A.T. Field, the sword misses, but doesn't hit the ground due to SEELE # 10 being able to make the sword stop in time.

After having Unit 04 successfully dodge the attack, Kaworu quickly pulls on the right control to make Unit 04 pull its right arm back a bit. After doing that, Unit 04 thrusts its opened hand while lunging itself towards SEELE Eva 10 and grabs the enemy by the left side of its head. The silver Eva then forcefully drives the right side of SEELE Eva 10's head into the ground, which results into the ground mildly breaking apart. This causes SEELE # 10's body to torque around quite a bit as his eyes are closed and pain can be seen passing through his face.

At the same time, SEELE # 09 witnesses what just happened and yells out in horror while lunging forward, "Uzaki!" He then quickly makes his Eva levitate into the air to fly towards Unit 04 and SEELE Eva 10.

SEELE # 11 watches SEELE Eva 09 fly towards Unit 04 with concern brimming. "Fujitaka! Don't do anything rash!" SEELE # 11 promptly follows SEELE Eva 09 by making his Eva fly as well.

Misato sees both Evas head towards Kaworu and yells out in concern as her arms are now uncrossed, "Kaworu, heads up! Two Evas on your way at three o'clock!"

In response, Kaworu looks towards the right with a hint of determination rising. After that, Unit 04 turns to face both enemy's while getting its A.T. Field ready. Suddenly, right when SEELE Eva 09 was about to reach Unit 04, Unit 02 appears out of nowhere and crashes both of its feet down onto the back of SEELE Eva 09.

That results in the front part of SEELE Eva 09 to crash into the ground while its pilot shouts out from annoyance with his head turned to the right to look behind himself, "What the hell?!"

Meanwhile, with her Eva on the enemy's back while crouching down a little, Asuka gazes down at the enemy she has pinned and says with a proud tone with her posture bent forward, "Finally got one of you bastards! You underestimated the Great Asuka Langley Soryu, dummkopf!"

Kaworu briefly watches on in shock due to Unit 02's sudden appearance, then looks behind himself and sees that SEELE Eva 10 is on all fours with its own sword stab into it left shoulder joint. This greatly surprises him as Kaworu turns his attention towards Unit 02 while a content smile slowly takes form. "Impressive, Soryu. I did not expect you to be able to do that."

Asuka scoffs at Kaworu's statement, makes Unit 02 give him a thumbs up with its right hand while standing upright and says with some arrogance in her voice, "You shouldn't underestimate me either, Angel-boy! That idiot depends on that sword of his too much, and after I got a hold of it, bam! I got him good!"

Kaworu chuckles with his right hand covering his mouth after hearing what Asuka said. His eyes then widen due to Kaworu seeing SEELE Eva 11 levitating right behind Unit 02 while being ready to swing its sword with both hands in an upper diagonal angle. After quickly putting his right hand down, Kaworu shouts out with a distraught tone, "Soryu!"

Asuka's a bit surprised by Kaworu's cry for a moment and then quickly turns her attention to look behind herself. She immediately sees that SEELE Eva 11's about to attack her, which forces Asuka to make Unit 02 elegantly turn to face towards its right and sway backwards to barely dodge the sword's blade.

With the fact that he missed, SEELE # 11's very irritated while saying underneath his breath, "Damn it!" Surprised then takes over his expression as Unit 02 suddenly faces his Eva and swiftly pulls its left leg back. After that, the red Eva lets out a full-swing kick to the jaw and the sheer force of the kick sends the enemy Eva backwards.

As that happens, SEELE # 11 yells out with annoyance overflowing while he's looking up towards the sky, "That bitch! How did she neutralize my A.T. Field to do that?!"

Asuka smirks as her confidence boosts up due to successfully landing a hit on the enemy. She then feels SEELE Eva 09 move underneath her a bit as it's still pinned down by Unit 02. This causes the red-head to look down at it with an innocent expression and says with a hint of sarcasm, "Oh, I'm sorry... I forgot you were down there." She then giggles to herself and makes Unit 02 hop off SEELE Eva 09 by going towards the right while gaining some distance.

Meanwhile, Unit 04 backs away from SEELE Eva 12 due to it trying to attack Unit 04 while its head's being pinned down to the ground. After gaining some distance, Kaworu gazes at Unit 02 with curiosity after seeing it get off the enemy Eva. "Soryu, you disconnected your Umbilical Cable, correct?"

Asuka casually turns her focus to Unit 04 while saying with a hint of annoyance due to Kaworu asking her about the Umbilical Cable, "Yeah." She then looks at the right side screen that displays the timer for Unit 02's back-up battery and it reveals that there's three minutes forty-nine seconds. After that, Asuka returns her focus to Unit 04 and says with a nonchalant tone, "Its been a little over a minute."

Kaworu chuckles while slightly tilting his head to the left. "Why does it sound like you are not bothered by the timer?"

Asuka turns her attention towards the now standing SEELE Eva 09 that's in front of her and says with a confident tone, "Because by the time it reaches zero, I would have already taken down all of them." She lets out a soft giggle.

Kaworu smiles while restraining himself from laughing since he enjoyed hearing what Asuka had just said. Afterwards, he notices that SEELE Eva 10's back on its feet and this causes him to be very serious. He then looks towards the other enemy Evas with analyzing eyes and contemplates in his head about the current situation. "Considering the timer for Unit 02, we'll have to act on that. I can not leave it to chance that Unit 02 will go berserk after losing all its power."

With that thought completed, Kaworu asks out loud with a composed tone through the private line so that the SEELE members don't hear, "Soryu, remember my request from earlier?"

Asuka's image appears on Kaworu's right side screen with a bit of confusion showing since she doesn't quite remember what he ask her earlier and then suddenly remembers while saying with realization being displayed, "Oh! The chainsaw, right?!"

Kaworu nods in response while looking at Asuka out of the corner of his eyes. "Exactly. I was planning on using it because it has the destructive force that is needed."

Asuka plainly stares at Kaworu for a moment while letting what he said sink in. She then smiles while lifting her left hand up in front of her, clenches it into a fist and confidently declares, "Then leave it to me!" Asuka puts her hand back on the controls while mildly leaning towards Kaworu's screen that's to her left. "I'll slice them into pieces!"

Kaworu nods at Asuka with a content smile, turns his attention towards SEELE Eva 12, who has gotten to its feet, and is now rushing towards Unit 04 while wildly swinging its sword. Kaworu quickly reacts to the assault and effortlessly has Unit 04 dodge each attack while minimizing Unit 04's movement. As this happens, Kaworu says to Asuka while his eyes are focused on the enemy, "After retrieving the chainsaw, choose an enemy and say the number on its forehead."

Asuka looks at Kaworu with confusion returning while thinking, "Why does he need me to do that?" She's then about to ask Kaworu the question she just thought, but she's interrupted by SEELE Eva 11 and 09 soaring towards her from opposite direction. That causes Asuka to do a quick double-take between the two Evas with a great amount of panic taking form. "Mein Gott!"

SEELE # 09 yells out as he makes his Eva pull the sword up in a right angle while his Eva heads towards Unit 02 from its front, "I'll make you pay for making me look like a fool!"

Hearing that causes Asuka to focus her attention on SEELE # 09's Eva with fierceness in her eyes while smiling. Suddenly, Unit 02's A.T. Field appears right before SEELE Eva 09 swings it swords, and amazingly, blocks the attack. This surprised SEELE # 09 as his Eva's black A.T. Field seems to be unable to overcome Unit 02's A.T. Field and yells out from disbelief, "Impossible! I should be neutralizing her A.T. Field."

Asuka gives out a fake laugh and yells out with determination brimming, "Did you forget who I am?! I'm not some weakling just because I chose not to fight Nero!"

With that declaration from Asuka, SEELE Eva 11 reaches Unit 02 from behind and coldly responds. "You may say that, but it's a known fact that you aren't as strong."

Asuka glances behind her with annoyance overtaking her and snaps back with a harsh tone. "Oh yeah?!" She forcefully pulls on the controls to make Unit 02 stand sideways and lets out a swift kick into SEELE Eva 11's stomach with Unit 02's left foot, which results in SEELE Eva 11 being sent backwards due to the strength of the kick while its pilot screams from the pain caused by the synchronization.

Kaworu smirks after seeing what Unit 02 did against the enemy Eva and then focus back on SEELE Eva 12, who continues to wildly swing its sword while Unit 04 evades with minimum movement. Then, unexpectedly, Kaworu fiercely stares down the enemy Eva that's in front of him while stopping Unit 04's movement.

SEELE # 12 sees this and smiles with confidence brimming due to thinking that he finally has Kaworu right where he wants him. SEELE Eva 12 then pulls its arm up over its head and swings it down while aiming for Unit 04's head. Unfortunately for him, Kaworu predicted such an obvious attack and made Unit 04 swiftly catch the descending blade with its right hand. This causes SEELE # 12 to gasp from disbelief while jolting his body forward. "He caught it!"

At the same time, SEELE Eva 10 had regained its composure and gotten back to its feet. SEELE # 10 had been waiting for an opportunity to attack and finally saw one when Unit 04 had caught SEELE Eva 12's blade. After seeing that, it flies quickly towards Unit 04 from behind as the pilot yells out with confidence being noted, "It doesn't matter that he caught the sword! He's vulnerable now!" His Eva then pulls its sword towards the left side with both hands and swings it in a sideway angle while aiming for Unit 04's neck.

In response, Kaworu glances behind him while Unit 04 turns towards its left to face the path of SEELE Eva 10's Prog Sword. Right as the sword was reaching Unit 04's neck, the silver Eva instantaneously ducks while the sword misses, which causes SEELE # 10 to yell out of anger, "Fuck!"

After successfully dodging the attack, Unit 04 straightens its posture and quickly jumps up quite a bit into the air while maintaining its hold on SEELE Eva 12's sword. Once its in the air, it quickly kicks its left foot off of SEELE Eva 10's chest. This action sends SEELE Eva 10 stumbling backwards while its pilot is a bit stunned. In the meantime, Unit 04 does a cart-wheel in the air thanks to the force it put in when kicking SEELE Eva 10's chest and goes over SEELE Eva 12.

As a result, SEELE Eva 12 loses its grip on the sword due to it being at risk of falling if it kept holding it since Unit 04 still had a firm grip on the blade. After Unit 04 lands on the ground while standing sideways with its left foot forward, Kaworu smile with his eyes towards the left to focus his attention on SEELE Eva 10's back and thinks, "Although this was not how I originally planned to take one of them down, but thanks to Soryu, I know that their own swords can be used against them."

SEELE # 12 looks behind himself with concern taking over his face. "You wouldn't!"

Kaworu lets out a soft laugh after hearing what SEELE # 12 said as Unit 04 gently tosses the sword to grab onto the handle of the sword with its right hand due to it still holding the Prog Sword by the blade. Afterwards, Kaworu says with a hint of confidence while trying not to laugh since what he's about to say is out of character for him, "I indeed would, Mr. Kashima." Unit 04 then swiftly swings the Prog Sword in an upper diagonal angle while aiming for the enemy Eva's back.

In reaction to the attack, SEELE Eva 12 quickly ascends to the air while managing to dodge as Aiko Kashima thinks, "I will not be defeated!" He then makes his Eva stop ascending due to believing that he's safe while having SEELE Eva 12's back to Unit 04.

SEELE # 10 suddenly shouts out with a distraught tone while peering at SEELE Eva 12, "Aiko, you idiot! He's right behind you!"

Hearing what his fellow member just say causes Aiko's eyes to widen with horror as he then looks behind him with shock immediately following when he sees that Unit 04's right behind his Eva while holding onto the Prog Sword with both hands. Unit 04 had achieved the feat of being behind SEELE Eva 12 by pushing off the ground with its A.T. Field to send it towards the enemy with great agility.

Unit 04 now swings the sword sideways from its right and slices through the enemy Eva's mid-section while passing by it due to the momentum from its launch with its A.T. Field. Right when this happened, everyone in Central Dogma had witness what just transpired and they're in awe by it.

After having his Eva sliced in half, Aiko's completely stunned while looking up at the ceiling of the plug and mumbles, "This can't be... Why... Keel...?" The upper half of SEELE Eva 12 then blows up due to Unit 04 having stuck its core unit and obliterates Aiko's entire body.

In response to the explosion, both Asuka and SEELE # 09, who's Evas are at a stand-off while facing each other, look towards where the explosion occurred and see that Unit 04 had defeated one of the SEELE Evas while landing back on the ground. Asuka then smirks with confidence increasing as she turns her attention back to the Eva that's in front of her. "Looks like one of your guys just kicked the bucket."

SEELE # 09 glares at Unit 02 out of the corner of his eyes while being angered by what Asuka said. He then turns his head to completely focus on Unit 02 while gritting his teeth. Afterwards, he hurriedly makes his Eva pull the arm that holds the sword back and thrusts its point into Unit 02's A.T. Field and unexpectedly breaks through. This causes Asuka to be quite surprised while pulling onto the controls to make Unit 02 evade backwards.

Unfortunately, SEELE Eva 11 was still behind Unit 02 and has its arms extended towards its side to be ready to strike Unit 02's back. Asuka notices that a little too late and can't stop her Eva in time. SEELE Eva 11 then thrusts its sword towards Unit 02's back, but suddenly, a Prog Sword flies from the left and collides into the enemy Eva's sword and causes it to be sent flying due to the Eva losing its grip on it.

Asuka stops her Eva and looks towards the left with curiosity brimming. She then sees that it was Unit 04 that threw the sword and this causes her to smirk. After that, Asuka realizes something and quickly makes Unit 02 turn to the right while running towards that direction.

SEELE # 09 sees that with anger still being displayed. "Where do you think you're going, you little brat?!" He then chases after Unit 02 with his Eva soaring through the air.

SEELE # 11's about to make his Eva pursue Unit 02 as well, but it's stopped by hearing Unit 04 running towards him. He then turns his Eva to face Unit 04 and deploy his A.T. Field while yelling out with a strained voice, "Oh no, you don't!"

Unit 04 immediately opens its pylons to reveal a Prog Knive's handle in each one. SEELE # 11 responds by laughing a little as he sees what Unit 04's doing and says with a hint of skepticism, "You think those obsolete weapons are going to help?"

Kaworu smirks while Unit 04 criss-cross its arms to grab the Prog Knives and extends its arm apart at the side. "Your arrogance will be your downfall, Mr. Hirainu" He then makes Unit 04 throw both knives at the same time while still running. This action concern Mr. Hirainu a little while both knives' tips collide into the A.T. Field and maintain in the air as they're next to each other.

Suddenly, Unit 04 jumps up and thrust both of its feet in a form of a drop kick. It then connects with the hilt of the Prog. Knives and breaks through the A.T. Field thanks to the sheer force of the Eva's kick. The momentum continues on with the knives pointed at SEELE Eva 11 while being underneath Unit 04's feet.

As this happens, Mr. Hirainu yells out in horror while pulling his body back, "Oh, no!" Unit 04 then drives both knives into the chest of the enemy while sending it flying backwards due to both feet hitting the chest right after the knives penetrated the chest. As a result, Mr. Hirainu starts to feel a bit faint from pain while his Eva falls onto its back. Meanwhile, Unit 04 lands on its feet while being a few steps away from the downed enemy.

In the meantime of the confrontation between Unit 04 and SEELE Eva 11, Unit 02 had reached the Prog Chainsaw that Unit 04 had dropped quite some time ago. At the same time, Asuka's intently gazing down at the chainsaw while thinking, "I completely forgot that Angel-boy wanted me to get this." She then makes Unit 02 reach for the chainsaw with its left hand while bending forward, but is interrupted when SEELE Eva 09 swings its sword, aiming for the back of Unit 02's head.

Out of nowhere, Misato yells out with a distraught tone while taking a step forward, "Asuka!"

Asuka responds to Misato's cry with irritation being noted as she looks at SEELE Eva 09 with intensity in her eyes. "I know, Misato!"

With that said, Unit 02 quickly dodges the enemy's attack by pulling its body up to straightens its posture while firmly holding onto the chainsaw with both hands. SEELE Eva 09's sword promptly hits the ground and buries itself under the ground. SEELE Eva 09 then tries to pull its sword off the ground, but seems to have a hard time due to it apparently being stuck. Asuka sees this and smiles in a devilish way while softly saying, "This is my chance." Unit 02 then pulls the Prog Chainsaw over its head and swings it downward.

SEELE # 09 sees this and quickly yells out while glaring at Unit 02, "You think you have me where you want?! Well think again!" SEELE Eva 09's black A.T. Field appears and successfully protects it from Unit 02's attack while the chainsaw grinds against the A.T. Field as sparks are flying all over.

With the fact that the chainsaw was blocked, Asuka grits her teeth with annoyance radiating from her person while Central Dogma's personnel are on edge as they're disappointed that the chainsaw isn't penetrating SEELE Eva 09's A.T. Field.

Misato bites her right index finger and middle finger's nails while contemplating about the entire situation in her head. "Even though they beat one of the Evas, we still can't relax. That A.T. Field is holding up too well against the chainsaw, and knowing Asuka, she's probably pissed 'cause she's most likely putting everything she has into that attack." She turns her attention back to Aoba with seriousness showing and asks while having put her hand down, "How's Shinji doing? Can he be sent out to help?"

Aoba firmly responds with his eyes focused on his screen. "Sadly, no." He then turns his chair towards the left to look at Misato. "He's making no progress at all with synchronizing."

Misato gets a bit irritated after hearing the bad news Aoba gave her. She then looks at the main screen while crossing her arms and says to herself, "I really wish Shinji can get it together already. We could really use his help."

Mari stares at Misato after barely hearing what she said with concern and then peers at the main screen with sadness resonating in her eyes while thinking, "Shinji... I know you're hurting because of Nero, but we need you..."

As Mari worries for Shinji's well-being, Gendo calmly watches the main screen with an emotionless posture and thinks, "Shinji's starting to revert back to the way he was. If he continues to dwell into the mental state that he has been so accustomed to since he was little, he will become more of a liability than an asset."

Suddenly, an image appears in his mind of when Unit 01 transcended and was near the point of causing 4th impact. Gendo then mutters to himself while narrowing his eyes, "I could possibly use him again though..." He smirks with a hint of maliciousness.

With those words from Gendo, the focus turns to Shinji for a moment as he continues to be curled up into a ball while his head is burying into his lap and arms. At the same time, he's tightly clenching his legs with both hands while being very upset and yells out in a whisper, "No...! I can hear everything that's going on out there! Kaworu's back and he's on our side because of Nero!"

Shinji's body begins to shake as he continues to say to himself in a whisper, "Asuka's fighting with him and she's doing great! But I'm... I'm useless! Even mother believes that! That's why she won't help me! So... Who's going to help me!" Tears start to fall down Shinji's face as he slowly lifts his head up to look at the ceiling and says with a crackled voice, "Who's going... Who's going to help... Me...?"

The focus now returns to Unit 02 and SEELE Eva 09. The two Evas have not move from the spot they have been standing for almost a minute as Unit 02 makes multiple attempts to break the enemy's A.T Field, but to no avail. This concerns Asuka a great deal due to the timer that's to her right displaying that there's fifty-seven seconds left of reserved power. At the same time, Unit 04 deals with both SEELE Evas 10 and 11. Apparently, SEELE Eva 11 wasn't defeated after having two Prog Knives kicked into its chest while SEELE # 10 had finally decided to get back into the action and does what he can to strike Unit 04 with his Eva's wing-like Prog Sword.

Asuka continues her attempts in breaking through SEELE Eva 09's A.T. Field while thinking with annoyance still being displayed, "This bastards A.T. Field is a MAJOR pain in the ass all of a sudden! Even with the damn chainsaw Angel-boy made a big deal about!" She then realizes something while her eyes widen a bit and then quickly turns her attention towards Unit 04, which is towards her left. Meanwhile, Unit 02 continues to unload on SEELE Eva 09's A.T. Field as Asuka yells out with a harsh tone, "Hey, Angel-boy! Wasn't I suppose to tell you what number is on the head of this Eva I'm fighting after getting the chainsaw?!"

Unit 04 swiftly dodges SEELE Eva 11's Prog Sword and faces SEELE Eva 10 as it's about to strike Unit 04 with its sword. Fortunately, Unit 04 deploys its A.T. Field and manages to hold its ground as SEELE Eva 11 swings its sword in a right, sideways angle with both hands firmly holding onto the handle while aiming for Unit 04's head from behind. In response, Unit 04 suddenly arches its left foot back and kicks SEELE Eva 11 in the jaw.

That action catches SEELE # 11 off guard while leaning forward and yells out with an upset tone, "Son of a bitch! I'm getting really sick of you!" He promptly has his Eva regain its composure and pulls the sword over its head. It then swings it down while still holding it with both hands. Kaworu shows a hint of irritation as he sees from behind him that the blade is about to come into contact, makes Unit 04 side step to the left and barely dodges the attack.

Asuka watches on with her left eyebrow raised and her mouth opened while her annoyance is increasing since Kaworu didn't respond to her question. She then leans towards the left while having Unit 02 stop its assault with its arms lowered. "Are you listening to me, asshole?!"

Kaworu hears Asuka's outburst after having gained some distance from both the enemy Evas and then looks at Unit 02 from behind himself since he had positioned Unit 04 that way while having a dumbfounded expression. "Did you say something, Soryu?"

Asuka grits her teeth with rage taking over. "Of course I did, dumb ass! You told me to tell you the number of the Eva I'm fighting after I got the chainsaw! Now hurry up, I only have thirty seconds left!"

Kaworu continues to be dumbfounded for a moment and then suddenly smiles with his eyes shut while saying with a happy tone, "Oh, I actually forgot about that. Do what you can because it would take too long to implement my plan. Sorry about that." He softly laughs a little.

Asuka's in shock for a moment due to the fact that Kaworu had actually forgot what he had planned and then shuts her eyes with her head lowered while yelling out in pure anger, "You have to be kidding me!"

At that very moment of Asuka's second outburst, SEELE # 09 sees his opportunity and finally pulls its Prog Sword that was still buried into the ground. He then makes his Eva thrusts its sword towards Unit 02's chest while tightly holding the sword in its left hand and confidently declares, "I got you!"

Asuka instantly responds by turning her gaze towards SEELE Eva 09 with intensity brimming while she's still notably annoyed. After that, Unit 02 swings the chainsaw upward and deflects the Prog sword to go upward while SEELE Eva 09's balance falters a little and its arms are above its head. Asuka then makes her Eva pull the chainsaw sideways towards Unit 02's left while having it near her Eva's face.

Afterwards, Unit 02 does a full swing and successfully slices both SEELE Eva 09's arms off. This results in SEELE # 09 screaming out in pain with his head tilted back while the inside of the entry plug displays warning signs all around him. Asuka then yells out after pulling on the controls to make Unit 02 position the chainsaw above its head, "Who's got who?! And with five seconds to spare!"

With that said, Unit 02 ferociously swings the chainsaw downward while SEELE # 09 watches the chainsaw and yells out with a distraught tone, "No! NO!" Unit 02 then cuts SEELE Eva 09 right down the middle, and right after that, the enemy Eva explodes while the explosion engulfs Unit 02.

Asuka holds onto the controls with her head lowered and eyes closed as her entire body feels the powerful force of the explosion due to being so close. Fortunately, Unit 02's A.T. Field minimized the worst of the explosion right before running out of power.

In the meantime, both the other SEELE Members watch the explosion while being concern since they didn't see which Eva blew up. Same goes for Kaworu as he's also watching the explosion while thinking with a composed demeanor, "Hopefully Soryu is alright. I should have gone to her aid considering she just said that her Eva's almost depleted of its power."

Then, the explosion clears and slowly reveals that Unit 02 is the Eva that's victorious. It's a bit damaged from the explosion while being on its knees with its head lowered due to it no longer being active. Seeing this eases Kaworu's worry, while at Central Dogma, everyone's happy to see that not only did Asuka take down an enemy, that she's also in one piece.

SEELE # 10 continues to watch where SEELE Eva 09 once stood with anger consuming him due to the lost of another comrade. "This is ridiculous! We lost both Aiko and Fujitaka!"

SEELE # 11's image appears in front of SEELE # 10 while giving him a composed look. "Calm down. We can still come out winning. Unit 02's obviously out of power. The only person we have to worry about now is Tabris."

SEELE # 10 nods in agreement while confidence takes over. He's then about to turn his attention back to Unit 04, but suddenly out of nowhere, Keel's voice comes through and says with a stern tone, "Uzaki, Mr. Hirainu. You both must retreat."

SEELE # 11 *Mr. Hirainu* looks upward while being quite surprised by Keel's words. "What?! But we still have a chance!"

SEELE # 10 *Uzaki* joins in with confidence being displayed as his right hand is curled up into a fist while being near his face. "That's right! We aren't beaten yet!"

Keel calmly responds. "That's not the reason I want you two to retreat. There's an issue that's been brought to my attention."

Uzaki puts his hand down while concern starts to show itself on his person. "What's the issue?"

Keel states with a hint of anger in his voice. "The people I left in the abandoned 1st Branch as an insurance policy... They're ignoring my calls."

Uzaki's eyes widen with surprise returning as he rests his back against the seat and asks with astonishment, "What the...?!"

Mr. Hirainu says with concern while leaning forward a little, "Why would they do such a thing?!"

Keel answers with no change to the tone in his voice. "I don't know. That's why I want you two to go over there and dispose of them. I don't need people who show such disrespect towards me. Anyway, you two can't handle Tabris by yourselves, and for some odd reason, Unit 01 isn't even out there. Our objective is to seize Unit 01 and its pilot. It would be too difficult to achieve that if it isn't in the battlefield."

Both Uzaki and Mr. Hirainu nod in agreement while saying in unison, "Yes, Chairmen." Their Evas then levitate into the air and quickly accelerate away from Unit 04 while leaving a large gust of air.

Kaworu's moderately surprised by both enemy Evas leaving all of a sudden and thinks, "That is quite strange. I did not expect them leaving after losing two of their members." He then turns his attention towards Unit 02 and says with concern showing, "Soryu, are you alright?"

Asuka responds with irritation being displayed while gazing up at the ceiling with her back rested against the seat. "Of course I am! Who the hell do you think I am?!"

Kaworu chuckles lightly with his eyes closed while gently placing his left hand on his mouth. "Yes, I know. You are the Great Asuka Langley Soryu. I already heard that from Nero."

Asuka's eyes widen a little while being surprised by what she just heard from Kaworu and then leans a bit forward again with curiosity taking over. "Nero talked to you about me?"

Kaworu smirks while resting his head onto the seat with sincerity brimming. "Indeed. He really liked talking about you, Soryu."

Asuka blushes while being even more surprised and thinks, "Really? He was talking about me before he..." She's then suddenly overcome with sorrow as she lowers her head and tries her best not to cry while thinking, "Before he died."

After that thought was completed by Asuka, Misato becomes the main focus for a moment as she's leaning next to Aoba's right with seriousness showing. "How's Shinji? He wasn't able to synchronize, was he?"

Mari looks towards Misato with concern being noted due to the mentioning of Shinji while being at a small distance behind Misato and Aoba. Right after that, Aoba gives Misato a sad look while his hands are placed on his screen's keys. "Sadly, but it doesn't make sense though."

Misato becomes a bit concern while asking, "What do you mean?"

Aoba turns his focus towards his screen and replies with a firm tone. "It really doesn't seem like the problem was Unit 01. It actually looks like Shinji was refusing to synchronize. I just can't understand why he would though."

Misato's filled with even more concern after hearing Aoba's words. She then straightens her posture while looking upward and thinks, "That would make two of us."

Meanwhile, Shinji continues to be curled up into a ball while sobbing quite a lot with his teeth dug into his bottom lip momentarily and then releases his grip on his lips to say with a distraught tone, "It's over, isn't it...? The fight... They didn't need me..."

Having said that, Shinji pulls his right hand up next to his right cheek, tightly clenches it into a fist and then punches the area of the seat that's to his right with anger rising within him. "I'm pathetic! All I did was sit here and cry!" His body starts to irrationally shake once again as he's disappointed at how pathetic he feels. "But that's all I'm good for now! I won't be able to protect anyone, so I should just stop trying!"

With that outburst, Shinji pauses for a brief moment while slowly unclenching his right hand. He then raises his hand and places it on top of his head while being consumed with immense sorrow. "I... Need someone... Please... Help me..."

Suddenly, an image of Nero passes through his mind and this causes him to cry even more while saying, "Nero... Help me. Help me..." Shinji desperately continues to say to himself while burying his head into his legs and tightly clenches onto his hair, "Help me...! Help me, help me, help me! Help..." He then screams out with a sorrowful, pleading tone, "HELP ME, NERO!"

With that final cry from Shinji, the scene randomly changes to a hybrid of a changing room and elevator that's currently going down to a lower level of an unknown facility. There happens to be a teenage boy in that room, who's slouched over a bit while having a plugsuit halfway on that matches the color of his short, black hair. His clothes are thrown on top of a small sofa while a picture of the boy when he was younger and a man, whom appears to be quite old, is pinned on a mirror that's on the wall to the boy's left. Also, a small counter is below the mirror while being attached to the wall as well. The room is illuminated by the lights on the metallic ceiling and the glass walls that are to the left and right of the boy as they display the descension of the changing room/elevator.

The boy hurriedly peers at the ceiling with a hint of concern resonating from his bronze-like eyes while facing towards the only door in the elevator/changing room, which is also made out of metal, and then mutters, "That's weird. I could have sworn that I heard someone."

After a few seconds of contemplating what he heard, the boy shrugs off his concern while turning his gaze towards his plugsuit and says with a light smile, "Oh well. I'm most likely hearing things. After all, the only people I would here are the Bridge Bunnies." He softly laughs to himself with his eyes shut.

Then, a "Sound Only" icon appears on the metallic wall behind the boy as a man's voice quickly retorts with annoyance. "We heard that! Can you please not refer us as 'Bridge Bunnies'?!"

The boy chuckles again while opening his eyes to look behind himself out of the corner of his right eye and then says with a layed back tone, "Oh, come on. Lighten up a bit."

The man sighs, seemingly being defeated by the boy's words, and then clears his throat for a brief moment before asking with a stern tone, "Are you ready for the field test, kid?"

The boy straightens his posture at the exact moment he was asked that question with his eyes on his plugsuit again, fastens it to his body, and after doing that, turns his head to the right to look at the "Sound Only" icon with a cheerful smile. "You bet!"

The man chuckles while obviously being pleased by the boy's response. "Good." He then changes his tone to sound serious. "By the way, we just received a message from Keel after having ignored his call for the thousandth time. He's really pissed."

At the same time the man said that last part, it was quite obvious that he was doing his best not to laugh due to finding Keel's anger amusing. He then composes himself, clears his throat a little and says afterwards with seriousness returning, "You do realize that he won't take our insubordination lightly. He's going to act soon with those Evas of his."

The boy smiles with pure content radiating from his person, turns to face the icon and responds with a hint of excitement in his voice. "That's what I'm expecting." He places his right hand on his waist while tilting his head to the left as he displays a carefree demeanor. "And I'm going to have so much fun taking them down."

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Not much to say. I had a lot of fun writing this episode, even though it did take me a while to write since my laziness took over once again. Next episode will be fun for me in the beginning since I know what to write, but after that... Yeah... We'll just have to see how it turns out.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


	24. Episode 24

Title: Neon Genesis Evangelion (The 2nd Season): Forever Intertwined

Author/Writer: Malkin Rivera

Words from the Author:

More questions will be answered during this episode. I obviously gave you all more things to be curious about thanks to episode 23, but don't worry, I'll answer them. Just be patient. Anyway, not much to say for this intro. So, let's get started! Neon Genesis Evangelion is sole property of Gainax, people. We can never change that, and by my opinion, who would even want to change that?! Enjoy, everyone.

Episode 24: Descending From Heaven As Only The Pilot Of Adam Can

The scene starts off with the two SEELE Evas that had retreated from Tokyo-03 roughly an hour ago and seem to be heading towards North America. They're currently flying side by side while being at a considerable distance above the Pacific Ocean as they hold onto their individual sword with their right hand. SEELE Eva 10 is to the left of SEELE Eva 11 as both Evas are damage quite a bit due to their confrontation with Units 02 and 04. To be more specific, SEELE Eva 11 still has the stab wounds on its chest from Unit 04's Prog Knives while SEELE Eva 10 still has the wound on its left shoulder from when it was stab by its own sword thanks to Unit 02.

SEELE # 11 *Mr. Hirainu* has a firm grip on the controls as he's leaning forward with his eyes focused on the direction his Eva's going in the air. At the same time, he says to SEELE # 10 *Uzaki* with a moderately annoyed tone, "I can't believe we had to leave all of a sudden just because of those idiots Keel has in the 1st Branch."

Uzaki nods in agreement with seriousness being displayed as he's also focus at what's in front of him. "It makes me wonder of all the mistakes Keel's made so far. Letting Ikari run wild, putting too much faith both in Nero and Tabris, and now those fools he had relied on to manage the 1st Branch after it was abandoned by most of its personnel are up to something. Think about it. They have to be scheming something to ignore Keel's calls."

Mr. Hirainu's annoyance increases as he lightly grits his teeth. "Tell me about it. And now we lost Fujitaka and Aiko in addition to Keel killing Henzei just because he kept questioning Keel's methods."

Uzaki turns his gaze towards SEELE Eva 11 with a hint of curiosity arising. "I still couldn't believe that when Nazuki told all the members who weren't there when that had transpired. It makes me feel like we can't completely trust Keel. He could kill us off at any moment if we don't do as he says."

Mr. Hirainu adds to what Uzaki said without deviating his attention from where his Eva is headed while calming his demeanor. "I agree. Especially considering that we're piloting these Evas with the help of the Surrogate Core. Something that WE had no intention of ever doing, but I guess, Keel scared us into it."

Usaki responds with a bit of irritation taking over. "That actually reminds me. Keel didn't tell us when the Surrogate Core was completed. He revealed that when he told us that it's our obligation to finally get involved in the battle. That way we can personally have a hand in Instrumentality and be sure that the same mistake won't occur."

Mr. Hirainu looks downward with concern dwelling within him as he thinks, "The Surrogate Core... It's similar to the Dummy Plug System, which fools the Eva into thinking that a chosen child is piloting. Like Tabris for example. That's the mentality that our Dummy Plug is using after all. What the Surrogate Core does is trick the Eva into recognizing us as chosen children and uses the Dummy Plug as the basis for that." He then narrows his eyes while thinking, "This was so that we wouldn't have to rely on kids to pilot anymore, but I never expected that we would be the first subjects for this."

With the completion of that thought, Mr. Hirainu looks at his body, sees all the cords that have been implanted into his body and then mutters with annoyance returning, "To have to endure all the pain that comes with being hooked up like this just for the sake of the Surrogate Core's usage..." Mr. Hirainu pauses for a moment while gritting his teeth with rage being noted. "Keel...! Even if you think this is for the sake of Instrumentality... I won't forget this pain!"

Uzaki interrupts Mr. Hirainu's rant to himself while yelling out with a horrified tone, "Hirainu! Ahead of us!"

In response to Uzaki's outburst, Mr. Hirainu does what his comrade says and suddenly an unknown object swiftly passes by between both of their Evas with a sonic-boom promptly being created. This results in both SEELE Evas 10 and 11 to be pushed backwards a bit due to the sonic-boom's shock-wave while being forced to be in an upright position. They then manage to stop themselves from going backwards any further as the two pilots try to regain their composure.

After composing himself, Mr. Hirainu snaps his head up after having it lowered and frantically looks around with panic being noted. "The hell just happened?!"

Uzaki retorts with worry being displayed on his person while turning his Eva the opposite direction, which is the direction that the unidentified object had headed when passing them. "I don't know! But that was too fast! There shouldn't be anything like that! I barely saw its figure, but I couldn't make out what it was!" He then slams his right fist on his controls while saying with rage building up, "And our Evas didn't even detect it at all!"

SEELE Eva 11 turns to face SEELE Eva 10 as Mr. Hirainu is about to say something. He's then cut off when the unidentified object heads towards them again without either Uzaki or Mr. Hirainu noticing. It then instantaneously passes between both Evas while slicing SEELE Eva 10's right arm off as another shock-wave pushes both Evas away from each other towards opposite directions. At the same time SEELE Eva 10 is sent away from SEELE Eva 11, Uzaki screams in pain with his eyes dilated while tightly gripping onto his right shoulder with his left hand with his head slanted backwards.

Luckily for Mr. Hirainu, SEELE Eva 11 manages to regain its composure again. After that, Mr. Hirainu does a quick double take towards the left between where the unknown object had gone and towards in front of him where SEELE Eva 10 is located due to Uzaki's cry. He then focuses his attention on SEELE Eva 10 and yells out with a concerned tone, "Are you alright, Uzaki?! What happened?!"

Uzaki grits his teeth as he valiantly grabs onto the controls with pain still being noted on his person while his eyes are focused on the controls. He then makes his Eva stop while facing towards the sky above. After doing that, he slams his back on the seat with his head turned to the right while clearly being exhausted as he looks at where SEELE Eva's right arm once was located. "Shit..." Irritation begins to rise as Uzaki thinks, "How did I lose a FUCKING arm!"

Mr. Hirainu leans forward and yells out again with concern increasing, "Uzaki, can you hear me?! What the hell happened?!"

Uzaki snaps back at Mr. Hirainu with his eyes closed while tilting his head back. "Like I would know!" He opens his eyes to look ahead of himself. "It happened so..." Uzaki's eyes then widen with horror taking over as he sees something in front of him. "Oh my God..."

Mr. Hirainu becomes even more concerned as he tilts his head a bit to the left. "What's wrong?"

Uzaki responds while slowly pointing towards what he's seeing with his right hand as it's shaking a lot. "Look... Above."

Mr. Hirainu's a bit confused at first while narrowing his eyes a little and then casually looks up. He's immediately in shock with his eyes instantly widening while seeing Unit 06 levitating above SEELE 10 with a spear in its right hand. *Side Note: The spear Unit 06's holding is the same one used by Mark 06 in Rebuild of Evangelion. So in reference to what it looks like, check out a picture of it* Mr. Hirainu then yells out from disbelief with a horrified tone, "Unit 06! But how's that possible?! Is it Tabris?!"

Uzaki answers with an enraged tone. "No! Tabris is piloting Unit 04 now! Anyway, the direction that Unit 06 first came from was..." His eyes then widen with realization showing on his face. After that, Uzaki yells out with urgency while trying to make his Eva position itself into a vertical base since it's still facing towards the sky, "It came from the direction of America!"

Mr. Hirainu hurriedly turns his attention back in front of him to look at SEELE Eva 10 and is about to respond to what Uzaki said, but notices Unit 06 suddenly pull its right arm back while positioning itself to throw the spear its holding. Mr. Hirainu then instantly snaps his head up while turning his Eva towards the left, which results in SEELE Eva 10 now being to his right. After doing that, he sees Unit 06 throw the spear with immense force and it heads straight towards SEELE Eva 10.

Uzaki reacts by deploying his Eva's black A.T. Field to block the spear, however, it does nothing to even slow the spear down. The spear then effortlessly pierces the Eva in the middle of its torso, which results in Uzaki giving out one final scream with pain consuming his entire being as warning signs are displayed on every screen.

After that, SEELE Eva 10 is instantaneously sent right into the ocean's water due to the sheer power of the spear's momentum. While seeing what transpired, Mr. Hirainu drops his head to look down with despair as he screams out, "Uzaki!"

Right after Mr. Hirainu's cry, a large explosion occurs underneath the water and rises above the surface sending countless amounts of water into the air. At the same time, Mr. Hirainu watches in horror due to knowing that SEELE Eva 10 and its pilot have been defeated. Not only that, but the fact that everything happened so fast that there was no possible way to react at all. Then without warning, the spear suddenly launches right out from where the explosion had occurred while the water was settling back down into the ocean and heads back to Unit 06 with amazing speed.

Mr. Hirainu sees this with belief taking over his expression while snapping his head up in the attempt of following the spear's movement. Unit 06 then effortlessly catches the spear with its right hand as the blade of the spear is pointed towards the sky. Having seen that, Mr. Hirainu's eyes widen with disbelief still lingering and yells out to himself while focused on Unit 06, "How the...?! It returned to Unit 06?! But there's no way... The only tool that returns to the one who's chose is...!" He then realizes something while momentarily pulling his body back with a mortified expression.

Afterwards, Mr. Hirainu leans forward again with his eyes narrowed to get a better look at the spear and thinks, "It couldn't be..." He promptly shouts out with anger arising while not realizing that he can be heard due to the channel that was used between him and Uzaki still being opened, "Is that the Lance of Longinus?!"

With that outburst, a teenage boy who resides inside Unit 06's entry plug while standing on a spacious, circular platform smirks to himself. He then places his left hand on his waist, which Unit 06 imitates for some reason, and says softly to himself while being quite pleased by Mr. Hirainu's reaction, "Bingo."

Mr. Hirainu continues to be enraged while not hearing the boy's comment while rapidly shaking his head with his eyes shut. "That's impossible!" He gives Unit 06 a fierce glare. "That can't possibly be the lance! The Lance of Longinus can NOT be modified by normal means! To have that appearance would mean that...!" Mr. Hirainu's pupils then dilate as horror consumes his entire being while letting out a small gasp. Right after that, he says in a low volume while gently resting his back on the seat, "Would mean that... Adam has awaken..."

A distraught look appears on Mr. Hirainu's face as his body torques forward. "And given the lance a new form!" SEELE Eva 11 then suddenly launches itself towards Unit 06 as Mr. Hirainu screams out with pure rage, "I won't accept that! Whoever is piloting can't be the true pilot of Adam!"

While SEELE Eva 11 advances towards it, Unit 06 swiftly changes its hand positioning on the Lance of Longinus to hold it upright. Soon after that, the enemy Eva reaches Unit 06 with its right arm pulled back as it's ready to swing the Prog Sword sideways from Unit 06's left.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hirainu passionately yells out with rage still being noted, "DIE!" SEELE Eva 11 swings the sword, but misses due to Unit 06 quickly reacting and pulling back enough to dodge the blade. After that, Mr. Hirainu's rage greatly increases as he makes his Eva launch a barrage of wild swings with the sword.

Unit 06's pilot sees this while leaning a tad forward with excitement arising as he let out a soft chuckle. Afterwards, Unit 06 elegantly and effortlessly weaves its body while dodging each of the attempted attacks as both Evas levitate in the air. Mr. Hirainu is driven crazy with rage due to not being able to land a single a blow yet while forcefully pushing the controls one at a time. "Stop moving, you son of a bitch!" He then makes his Eva get closer while still wildly swing the Prog Sword.

In response, Unit 06 quickly moves more freely when certain attacks are launched. It pulls to the sides when downward or upward swings are launched. When its head is the target of an attack, it ducks down or sways backwards. Sometimes, just to show off, it does multiple aerial spins and flips to display how useless SEELE Eva 11's attacks are. This fact causes Mr. Hirainu's rage reach its peak as he screams out, "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

After that outburst from Mr. Hirainu, Unit 06 suddenly pulls away from SEELE Eva 11 at a decent distance. It then quickly pulls its right arm back, and with as much force as possible, throws the lance while a shock-wave is created behind the lance to display how fast it's going. Mr. Hirainu's in shock briefly due to the suddenness of the lance heading towards him. Then, by sheer luck and instantaneous reaction, Mr. Hirainu makes his Eva weave its head to the right and barely dodges the lance.

Although, SEELE Eva 11 was hit by the shock-wave right after, which caused Mr. Hirainu to be shaken up a bit as his head's lowered with his eyes closed. After a few seconds go by since the lance pass by and the shock-wave resided, Mr. Hirainu looks at Unit 06 again with intensity. "I don't know who you are, but you just lost the lance." He smiles in a malicious manner. "So prepare to die, whoever you are."

With that said, Mr. Hirainu's about to make his Eva advance once again, but suddenly, a loud impact is heard as the word "Danger" appears on every screen in red. At the same time, Mr. Hirainu's eyes widen with shock all over his face as his jaw drops while his head recoils forward. It's then revealed that the Lance of Longinus had struck the back of SEELE Eva 11's head with the blade having gone completely through to the front.

Afterwards, Mr. Hirainu turns his gaze towards the right to look behind himself with a hint of concern arising while still in shock, sees the lance and then thinks with disbelief lingering, "The... Lance of... Longinus! But how?!" He then grits his teeth with anger rising while mumbling, "Who the hell...?!"

The boy softly says to himself while being quite pleased by what transpired, "You obviously forgot that the lance would return to Adam." He chuckles lightly. "That was very clumsy of you, Mr. Hirainu."

After a few seconds of dealing with the pain that has consumed his body, Mr. Hirainu snaps his head to have his eyes towards Unit 06 while screaming out with rage, "Who the HELL are you?!" His eyes then suddenly widen with complete horror as he sees Unit 06 appear right in front of SEELE Eva 11 with its right hand pulled back.

At the very moment Unit 06 appears in front of SEELE Eva 11, the boy responds to Mr. Hirainu's cry with a hint of arrogance in his voice while smirking. "As if I need to tell you."

Mr. Hirainu's expression changes to disbelief after hearing the boy for the first time through the opened channel and says softly, "That voice...! It's-" He's then cut off from what he's about to say due to him suddenly feeling an intense pain coming from his stomach. This is due to Unit 06 having thrusted its right hand into SEELE Eva 11's stomach and blood immediately gushes out onto Unit 06's arm. Right after that, Mr. Hirainu suddenly coughs out a small amount of blood onto the part of the seat that's beneath his legs while holding onto his stomach with both hands.

Then, Unit 06 slowly reaches for the lance with its left hand and firmly grabs a hold of it while maintaining its right hand inside SEELE Eva 11's stomach. After Unit 06 does that, the boy says with a casually amused tone while his left arm is extended forward as if mirroring Unit 06's action, "I'm very impressed that the Surrogate Core Unit is working so well... But that won't change the fact that I'm better than you old guys." He gives off a mild laugh and then has Unit 06 pull out the lance from SEELE Eva 11's head.

That action from Unit 06 causes Mr. Hirainu more pain while he continues to grit his teeth with his eyes shut. After that, Mr. Hirainu looks at Unit 06 with rage returning as he says while breathing heavily, "It couldn't be...! How can you pilot that Eva?! Only Tabris could-"

The boy interrupts Mr. Hirainu with confidence residing within his voice. "Now that's where you're wrong." He briefly pauses for a moment and then says with a cocky tone, "Anyway, who said that Kaworu's the true pilot of Adam?"

In response, Mr. Hirainu's surprised by what he just heard. He's then about to let out a retort, but couldn't due to him seeing Unit 06 pull its left arm back while still holding onto the lance, which the boy had done the same thing. After that, the boy states with a sinister smile while having his right arm extended to reflect that Unit 06 is maintaining its right hand inside SEELE Eva 11's stomach, "Well, it doesn't matter. This is goodbye, Mr. Hirainu. Say hello to the Devil for me."

With those words, Unit 06 elegantly pulls its right hand out of SEELE Eva 11's stomach and then swiftly swings the lance in an upper left diagonal direction. As a result, SEELE Eva 11 is split into two by a diagonal slash while Mr. Hirainu screams out with disdain all over his face, "Damn you, Nero!"

Then, a little time goes by as the explosion dies down and a black icon suddenly appears with the words "Sound Only" to the left of Nero. A man's voice comes through the intercom and talks with a mature tone. "How did it go, kid? Your synchronization was over 100% without making Unit 06 go berserk. Did you like the platform more than the seated controls?"

Nero turns his gaze towards the icon with pure excitement being displayed while clenching his hands. "It was amazing, grandpa! Unit 06 is so fast that I can't even believe it!" He turns his body while lifting his left hand up with it now being unclenched. "I had so much fun!" Nero then diverts his gaze downward to the platform. "And I LOVE the fact that I can use this platform combined with the ability to control Unit 06 with my plugsuit!"

The man responds with a hint of amusement in his voice due to what Nero had said. "That's good. Did you find any difficult-" He then realizes something, which is why he didn't finish that sentence, and yells out with a bit of irritation, "Wait a minute! Did you just call me 'Grandpa'?!"

Nero puts his hand down while tilting his head back to laugh loudly due to the man's reaction. "I sure did!" He looks at the icon with a joyful gleam resonating from his eyes. "Remember, we agreed that I could call you 'Grandpa' and you can call me 'Kid'."

The man snaps back with irritation increasing. "Yeah, but you make it sound like I'm old! I'm only 62!"

Nero chuckles with a hint of skepticism showing with his left hand now on his waist. "Grandpa... That's old." Some snickering is then heard in the background of the icon, which suggests that people are listening to their conversation.

This annoys the man as he shouts at them, "Oh, shut up! That's not funny!"

That makes Nero smile with content while slanting his head to the left a bit. After that, the man focus back on Nero and says with a little annoyance still lingering, "Anyway, the field test was a success, right? You didn't have any trouble with Unit 06 while fighting SEELE, did you?"

Nero replies with a laid back tone while having raised his right hand up towards his face a little to look at the cross that's on his plugsuit's forehand. "It was a total success. SEELE didn't know what hit them until it was too late." He then lifts his head up towards the icon with a modest look on his face and places his right hand behind his head with both eyes shut. "Though I did catch them off guard with a sneak-attack."

The man states in response to Nero's words with a bit of serious in his voice, "It's better that way. We need to defeat them no matter what so we can insure the salvation of the world. Our days of blindly following Keel for the absurd dream of mankind becoming one is over! You made me realize that, Nero. I'm very grateful."

Nero opens his eyes to look at the icon with a bit of curiosity brimming and then puts his right hand down with a content smile taking form while also composing his posture. "You don't need to thank me. You helped me a lot when I was little, grandpa. This was the least I could do to pay you back for taking good care of me back then."

The man chuckles, obviously being pleased by Nero's words and then says with a casual tone, "Well, enough gratitude. You have to head back already. Lucas is waiting for you to eat."

Nero makes an expression of realization while smacking his forehead with his right hand. "Shit, that's right! I completely forgot!" He quickly lowers his right hand and lightly leans towards the icon with a calm expression. "I'll be there in half an hour."

The man simply responds while trying to hide his amusement. "We'll be waiting."

Unit 06 and Nero hurriefly fly off to head back to the 1st Branch with impressive speed as the scene changes to focus on NERV's Central Dogma. Kaworu and Asuka had returned from their respective Evas while still wearing their plugsuits. In Shinji's case, he had been requested to go to the clinic to be examined by Ritsuko for her to try to figure out why he failed to synchronize with Unit 01. Due to her concern for Shinji, Mari had gone to the clinic to see if he's alright. In the meantime, everyone in Central Dogma have their eyes on Kaworu, which includes Gendo and Fuyutsuki as they're both at Gendo's counter-like desk.

Kaworu looks at everyone and says with a composed tone, "I know what SEELE is using so that even their members can pilot Evas." He briefly pauses to take a deep breath with his eyes closed and turns his attention towards Gendo while facing him. " It is because of the Surrogate Core Unit."

Misato gives Kaworu a concern look with her head slightly tilted to the left as she stands at a small distance from Kaworu's right. "Surrogate Core Unit?"

Gendo says afterwards with a firm tone while being in his usual pose, "So that's the name he gave it."

Misato immediately snaps her head to Gendo with surprise being shown while concern continues to be present on her person. "You knew about it?!"

Gendo responds while having only turn his eyes to gaze at Misato, which can't be really seen since he's wearing his glasses. "In a matter of speaking, yes. But it was a failed product that I had highly doubted would ever be completed without risking the pilot's life."

Kaworu cuts in with a bland tone. "That was what you thought with the Crusher System and look what happened."

Gendo veers his attention back to Kaworu with an indifferent expression. "True. What I thought before to be impossible is starting to be our greatest threats."

Kaji adds in while standing to Misato's right and lookins at Gendo. "Not only that, their Evas can fly without wing attachments... And apparently, with SEELE members being their pilots, those Evas are more precise and dangerous than ever."

Kaworu turns his eyes towards the right to look at Kaji and replies with his usual, polite tone. "Indeed. Which is why I'm going to tell you everything I know about their plans."

Asuka gives Kaworu an annoyed glare with both arms folded together as she stand to his left. "We'll see if your information is good or not. I have some doubts."

Kaworu smirks, looks at Asuka out of the corner of his eyes and puts his hands together while they're lowered in front of him. "Do not worry. It is." He then returns his focus to Gendo with seriousness taking over. "To start off; SEELE's plan is to cause Instrumentality, which is the 4th Impact."

Kensuke takes a step towards Kaworu while standing behind him with Rei to his left and Touji to his right. While doing that, curiosity can be seen on Kensuke's face as he asks, "How do they plan on doing that?"

Kaworu calmly turns to his right, which has him facing Misato, and stands sideways while making eye contact with Kensuke. "They need a Medium to initiate it. Just like 3rd Impact."

Misato's eyes widen slightly with worry emitting. "Wait a minute!" She then leans towards Kaworu a little. "Who are they planning to use as a Medium?!"

Some sadness can be seen taking over Kaworu's expression as he looks at Misato while separating his hands to have them next to his sides. "The same person they used for the 3rd Impact; Shinji and Unit 01."

Misato's eyes narrow with seriousness being displayed as she thinks, "Those bastards..."

Meanwhile, Asuka gives Kaworu a dirty look while slightly tilting her head to the left in the attempt to see his face. "So they can't do that until they have Unit 01."

Kaworu turns around to face Asuka while placing his right hand on his waist. "Actually, there are two other ways to initiate 4th Impact, but since Shinji and Unit 01 have been used once before for Instrumentality, SEELE would prefer to use someone who they know will work."

Touji cuts in with a bit of confusion showing while scratching the left side of his head with his left hand as Hikari stands to his right. "I don't get it. If they really want to do that Instrumental thing, wouldn't they use the other two ways?"

Kaworu looks at Touji and responds with mild nervousness being displayed. "Well, the other two options happen to be quite inconvenient for them to use."

Curiosity arises from Fuyutsuki after hearing what Kaworu said. "What exactly was inconvenient about them?"

Kaworu focuses on Fuyutsuki. "I do not know very much about one of them. Keel chose not to tell me and decided not to use that option." He then smiles with a small amount of arrogance arising. "And in the case of the other option, that option betrayed SEELE and destroyed their former base."

Asuka's eyes widen with surprise as her attention is still on Kaworu while thinking, "He means Nero!" Her entire being is promptly filled with sadness as her head drops and the red-head's bangs shadow her eyes.

Misato sees Asuka's reaction, which causes her to be a bit sad for a moment, and then turns her gaze to Kaworu with a hint of skepticism showing. "So Nero was another option. What a coincidence."

Kaworu glances at Misato while maintaining his smile. "It is clearly not just a coincidence."

Gendo adds in while looking at Misato without changing his pose. "He's right. If Shinji can be used for Instrumentality, then Nero obviously could as well." He lowers his head a little without taking his eyes off Misato. "But Keel most likely didn't want to take the risk of using him."

Kaji responds while putting his hands into his pockets as he's watching the Gendo. "That has to do with what the Medium is granted during Instrumentality. He can decide whether for mankind to become one or not."

Asuka gives out a fake laugh. "Then those guys are really stupid! Do they actually think that Shinji will do what they want?! Did they forget what happened last time?!"

Kaworu looks at Asuka while putting his hand that was on his waist down. "I normally would have agreed with you, but after Shinji almost caused 4th Impact not too long ago, I am fairly worried that SEELE are not as stupid as you may think."

Asuka grits her teeth with annoyance brimming and then yells out, "Well we don't need to worry about that! There's no way Shinji's going to be used by those bastards!" She then lifts up her left hand and points at herself with her thumb being close to her face. "They'll have to get through me, first!"

Hikari looks at Asuka with amusement while putting her left hand on her hip and thinks to herself, "Is it just me or does it seem like Asuka's acting more like her old self?" She then giggles lightly to herself.

At the same time, Misato smiles after hearing Asuka's words and nods in agreement. "And you won't be the only one they'll have to get through." She then suddenly becomes sad while lowering her head. "I just wish Nero was still alive to help."

Sadness quickly returns to Asuka's face as she puts her hand down and drops her head down to stare at the floor. Meanwhile, Kaworu makes a surprised expression while remembering something and then takes a step towards Misato with his left hand lifted up a little. "You just reminded me. I need to tell you about my fight with Nero."

Asuka's head immediately snaps towards Kaworu with concern brimming. "Your fight with who?!"

Kaji answers Asuka's question with a delicate tone due to him being worried about her reaction to what he's going to say. "Well, the thing is. Kaworu was the one Nero fought in Unit 03 and..."

Asuka's completely baffled due to knowing what Kaji's trying to say and then glares at Kaworu with rage overflowing while pointing at him with her right hand. "You?! You're the reason he's dead!" Asuka quickly marches up to Kaworu with her right hand down and gets her face extremely close to his while desperately trying to hold back her tears. "You bastard!"

Kaworu nervously smiles with his hands raised up in front of himself while waving them a little with his eyes closed. "No, no, no! Let me finish!" He opens his eyes to look at Asuka as she maintains her face close to his. "Nero is not dead."

Everyone's instantly in shock while trying to register into their mind what Kaworu had just said. Gendo then gets up with both hands placed on his counter-like desk while thinking, "Nero... Isn't dead?" After that, Gendo narrows his eyes with a serious look appearing and thinks, "Then that proves it... Nero can't die as long as..."

Gendo's thought remains incomplete as shock continues to have hold on Asuka. She then snaps out of it while rapidly blinking and shouts out afterwards in disbelief, "Wait, what?! He's...! He's...!"

Kaworu lowers his hands while sincerely smiling at Asuka. "Yes, Soryu. Nero is indeed alive."

Asuka quickly responds with concern all over her face. "Then where is he?! If he's alive, then where is he and why hasn't he come back yet?!"

Kaworu gently replies while taking a couple of steps back to distance himself a bit from Asuka. "Calm down, Soryu. He is in America with Unit 06."

Gendo hears Kaworu's words and thinks with his eyes narrowing behind his glasses, "Unit 06... Nagisa mentioned that it was the Eva that he had piloted to defeat Nero. So, if it's with Nero, what exact role did Keel have plan for an Eva like that?" He then makes a slightly disgruntled expression while thinking, "I'll have to ask Nagisa about that Eva in private later."

Kaji cuts in on the conversation while regaining some composure. "But didn't you say that Unit 06 was too damaged for you to bring it?"

Kaworu turns his head to the left to look at Kaji from behind himself. "I did, but that has nothing to do with Nero still being alive. I also never said that he was dead. I was actually going to tell you, however, SEELE attacking kept me from telling all of you until now." Suddenly, Kaworu hears mild heaves and turns his attention back to Asuka.

Asuka silently cries to herself with her head lower and hands clenched. "He's actually alive." She then quickly wipes away the tears with her right hand and lifts her head up while happily smiling.

Kaworu smiles back at Asuka with his eyes shut and head tilted to the left. "Yes, and you will see him very soon."

Asuka continues to happily smile as the others watch on with the same happiness residing within them and being displayed. The scene then changes to focus on the clinic room that Shinji, Mari and Ritsuko are in. Ritsuko's looking through some papers that she has attached to a clipboard with er back turned to Shinji and Mari. As she does that, Shinji had changed back into his school uniform and now sits on the left side of a bed with Mari sitting to his right as they are holding hands.

Mari has her head rested on Shinji's right shoulder and peers at him with worry resonating within her eyes. "Listen to me, Shinji. Everything's going to be okay. So just be happy."

Shinji doesn't respond to Mari's words as he's staring at the floor with dull eyes. This causes Mari to worry even more as she tightly holds onto Shinji's hand with both of her hands while thinking, "I don't know what to say to him. What would Asuka do when he's like this?"

Ritsuko turns to face them, gives one final glance at the clipboard and then focuses her attention onto Shinji with a professional demeanor. "There's nothing physically wrong with you, Shinji, and psychological-wise there isn't much." She momentarily looks behind herself and places the clipboard behind her with her left hand. Ritsuko then returns her attention back to Shinji and says with a somber tone, "The only thing that I can come up with his that either Unit 01 is rejecting you like Unit 03 did with Touji or..."

Mari removes her head from Shinji's shoulder while straightening her posture and asks with a concerned tone, "Or what?"

Ritsuko looks at Mari with a hint of disappointment brimming. "Or that Shinji is rejecting Unit 01."

Mari's eyes widen from shock for a moment due to what she just heard. She then quickly looks at Shinji and sees that he continues to stare at the floor without having even reacted to Ritsuko's words at all. It's as if he didn't even hear what Ritsuko said and this causes a hint of concern to appear on Mari's face while saying, "Shinji?"

Shinji doesn't react to Mari's words either as he sits there motionless, which Ritsuko notices that and causes her to become fairly concern with her posture bent towards the two children. She then grasps the 3rd Child's chin with her right hand and makes him look at her. Afterwards, Ritsuko's concern greatly increases due to her seeing that the light in Shinji's eyes is gone and yells out in a panic, "Oh my God!" She hurriedly snaps her head to look at Mari while letting go of Shinji's chin. "How long has he been like this?!"

Mari gives Ritsuko a worried look while leaning towards her. "Since I got here! Why?! What's the matter?!"

Ritsuko responds with urgency as she straightens her posture. "He lost conciousness!" She then turns away from Mari and grabs her clipboard. "Quick! Lie him down! I need to check him again! He passed out for no apparent reason!"

Having heard Ritsuko's words, Mari gets off the bed while holding onto Shinji by his shoulders and lies him down on the bed. As Mari does this, she's overcome with even more worry for her boyfriend and leans towards him with her hands on the bed. Mari then shouts out while desperately holding back tears due to how worried she is about him, "Shinji! Please, wake up! Wake up, Shinji!"

While Mari continues to plea to Shinji, with Shinji's mind occurs a memory that had been long forgotten up until the 3rd Impact had reminded him, but still wasn't completely regained. This memory had occurred a few days after his mother's death. Shinji was three years old and he was in a park that he hasn't been in since that day. He's knelt down inside a sandbox with two girls, who are about his age and are quite unattractive in appearance. They're currently working together in building a pyramid that resembles NERV's pyramid. The reasoning for this is unknown, but it isn't really what matters at the moment. Suddenly, the two girls are called by their mother and they immediately say their goodbyes to Shinji.

After that, they leave with Shinji being all alone as he continues to work on the pyramid a bit longer. He then stops, probably because he had finished, and gets up on his feet. Having done that, Shinji stares down at the pyramid for a brief moment with a look of disdain on his face as his hands are clenched into fists. He then suddenly kicks the pyramid with his right foot while tears can be seen forming underneath his eyes as he cries softly to himself. After few seconds of crying to himself, Shinji wipes his eyes with both hands and gets on his knees. Once he does that, he starts to rebuild the pyramid while heaving lightly and does his best to hold back his tears.

As Shinji does that, a boy suddenly appears standing on top of an area that's to the left of Shinji while quite a few chairs reside in that area and cement steps not to far from the right of the boy that lead into the park. The area is elevated higher than the ground that's in front of the boy, which is where the park is located, and seems to be the most convenient way to exit the park. The boy then says with an insensitive tone, though sounding quite amused as well, "That was pretty stupid. What was the point in knocking it down if you're going to just rebuild it?"

Shinji's eyes widen with surprise after hearing what the boy said and then slowly turns his head to the left. He sees the boy standing with his arms crossed and is so baffled by the fact that the boy looks almost exactly like him that he stutters while speaking. "W-Who are y-you? A-And why do y-you look like m-me?"

Nero smiles at Shinji while slanting his head towards the left. "It's because I'm your twin brother. The names Nero."

Shinji becomes a bit confused with his left eyebrow raised. "T-Twin?"

Nero uncrossed his arms while straightening his head and confidently nods at Shinji. "Yep. That word means that I'm your sibling that looks like you."

Shinji continues to be confused while facing Nero with him now on his feet and his head tilted to the right. "Sibling?"

Nero lightly knocks on the top of his head with his right hand's knuckles while his left eye is closed and his tongue's stuck out in a playful manner. "Oops, my bad. I forgot that your vocabulary is very limited at this age."

Shinji's confusion doesn't stop due to not being able to completely grasp why Nero said what he said. Then, Nero decides to put his hand down and gives Shinji a faint smile. "Sibling means brother or sister. Twin means that we were both born on the same date and look the same, but in our case there are small differences about how we look. So we aren't completely identical."

With that said, Nero turns his attention to the steps and calmly walks down them as Shinji watches him with curiosity being displayed. Nero promptly stands to Shinji's left, gazes at the torn-down sand pyramid for a little bit and then looks at Shinji out of the corner of his right eye with his left hand on his waist with mild amusement showing, "So, why did you destroy it if you're going to just make it again?"

That question surprises Shinji as he continues to face Nero for a moment and then narrows his eyes with a hint of anger taking over his expression. Right after that, Shinji turns towards the pyramid with his head lowered as his bangs shadow the 3rd Child's eyes and says with hatred dwelling within him while trying not to cry, "I... I was very mad at it."

Curiosity can be seen on Nero's face as his head's tilted a bit to the right. "You were mad?"

Shinji nods his head and then says with his voice cracking up a bit due to him having reached the point of crying, though it can't really be seen except for the tear that's going down his left eye, "I was m-mad... B-But after I destroyed it... I-I became sad."

Nero responds to Shinji's words with no real emotion being displayed. "That's why you're rebuilding it. You wanted to make it again because before, that place gave you happiness."

Shinji quickly looks at Nero with his eyes being revealed as he's a bit shocked by what Nero said. He then slowly lowers his head while it's facing towards Nero as he's on the verge of breaking down. "N-Nero..."

Nero's a bit bewildered by Shinji while pulling his head back a little. "Wow! I only said my name once and you still remembered it!" He then leans towards Shinji while smiling brightly with his eyes closed. "You have a pretty good memory."

Shinji looks Nero again, but with eyes filled with tears and sadness completely consuming his being. "Nero... If you're my brother, then we have the same mom?"

In response, Nero gives Shinji a somber look while having lost his smile and nods. Shinji then says with a hint of sorrow mixing in with the sadness, "Do you know that she's gone?"

Nero's eyes immediately become dull after hearing what Shinji said and casually turns his eyes towards the left to look away from Shinji. "I know, and that's why you are mad at the pyramid."

Shinji turns his head to face the pyramid and slowly nods his head. "It took her away, and now I'm all alone."

Nero lightly chuckles, looks at Shinji and quickly wraps his left arm around Shinji's neck while resting it on his brother's shoulders. This action completely baffles Shinji as he snaps his head towards Nero with wide eyes. Nero then says while looking down at the sand with cheerfulness all over his face, "Don't worry! You have me!" He looks at Shinji with a joyful smile. "I'm here for you, Shinji. I'm your brother, and as long as I'm alive, you'll never be alone."

Shinji continues to be baffled by Nero for a moment. He then smiles with complete happiness radiating from his person. "Really?! You'll always be here with me?!"

Nero's eyes gleam with sincerity as he and Shinji face each other. After doing that, he says with determination, "Whether I'm here or not, doesn't matter, little brother. All that matters is that I am alive and that you know I exist." Nero then crosses his arms while tilting his head to the right a bit. " As long as you know that, you can get through life."

After saying that, Nero lifts up his left hand while straightening his head's posture and sticks out his index finger in front of him. "Because everyone just need at least one person to give them meaning to their life. One person is enough to live."

Shinji's bewildered by Nero's words as a small gust a wind passes by and makes his hair flutter towards the right. After that, Shinji smiles again and says with a slightly optimistic tone, "Okay. Then I should be happy, right?"

Nero quickly grabs onto both of Shinji's hands and shouts out with a cheerful tone while having his face really close to Shinji's face, "Of course! What's the point of us being in this world if we can't be happy?!"

Shinji gets a little nervous due to the way Nero responded, but can't help but to be amused by it. "You're right."

With that said, they both laugh with their eyes closed for a small amount of time. After they stopped laughing, Nero had let go of Shinji's hands and is now look towards the hill's steps with a calm demeanor. He then turns his head to look at Shinji, who's behind him, and says, "Well, it's time for me to go."

Concern quickly takes over Shinji's expression as he takes a few steps towards Nero. "What?! Where are you going?!"

Sadness fills Nero's eyes as he stares down at the floor. "Dad is sending me away again. I'm going back to that place that kept us apart and kept us from being a family." He then clenches his right hand tightly while anger emits from him. "I have to go back to that place that I'm cursed to go just because of me being smart."

Shinji continues to look at Nero with an insecure expression due to the fact that he's already leaving after only knowing his brother for a brief amount of time. Nero then shuts his eyes, takes a deep breath, turns sideways with his left foot towards Shinji and happily says, "But I'll be back! I have to protect my little brother and I can't do that if I'm not here, now can I?!" He chuckles lightly due to him being amused by his own words.

This causes Shinji to be a bit stunned for a moment and then smiles as he takes one more step towards Nero. "You promise that you'll come back?!"

Nero lifts up his hands and places them behind his head. "Of course. It may take a while, but I'll come back someday. I swear." He then removes his left hand from the back of his head and points at Shinji with confidence brimming. "Just promise that you won't forget me! It's important that you remember that you are never alone!" Nero pulls his left arm back and points his thumb at himself. "Because you have a twin brother that will watch over you. Both physically and mentally. That's the special bond that comes with being twins."

Shinji's happiness rapidly returns and nods at Nero while his eyes begin to water from the happiness he's feeling. "I promise! I won't forget!"

Having heard that, Nero places his left hand behind his head again, turns away from Shinji while contentedly smiling with his head down and thinks, "Please don't forget me, Shinji. Because I'll definitely won't forget. Even with this anger I feel towards you 'cause you at least got to spend time with mother."

Nero looks up at the blue sky that currently has very few clouds and starts to walk away while softly saying to himself, "But I can feel the pain that you're feeling. So I can't hate you forever for something so insignificant." He closes his eyes while a tear comes out from his right eye and goes down his face. "I love you, Shinji. If I can, I'll keep you safe from the pain and protect you as long as God allows it."

As Nero keeps walking away, Shinji watches him with tears rapidly going down his face and then desperately tries to wipe them away with his eyes closed. The reason he does this so desperately is because he believes that those tears are keeping him from being happy. He really wants to try to be happy since he now knows that he has someone who cares about him, and that person even happens to be his brother. A sibling that Shinji thought he didn't have, but now that he knows that he isn't alone, he can feel some hope for his life and future. So with that, he continues to cry with his head lowered while trying to stop himself due to him not comprehending that he's crying out of joy this time and that these tears are alright to shed.

Meanwhile, the elder Shinji that is having this remembrance is watching the younger version of him crying at a small distance behind him. He then turns his focus towards Nero with a dull expression and sees that his brother is walking away. The elder Shinji's lips start to tremble with tears starting to run down his face as well. "T-This is what I-I forgot. For the longest time, I forgot him..." Shinji then remembers the words Nero had yelled to him during their fight. The words "You forgot our promise!" were repeating in Shinji's mind.

The rage and betrayal that Nero had felt was understandable right now. Shinji then tilts his head back, hands grabbing onto his hair and head with his eyes shut and pure sorrow consuming him. "I forgot him!" He drops to his knees with his head planted on the grass as he claws at his head while being angry at himself. "Why?! Why, why, why?! Why did I forget?! I promised him that I wouldn't and I did!"

Continuous memories of Nero rushes through Shinji's mind as his sorrow deepens. He then pulls his head back while firmly holding onto it still with both hands and slams it against the ground. This causes him a significant amount of pain. "I'm so pathetic! I let my anger get the best of me! I let Nero get killed! I can't pilot Unit 01 anymore! Mother abandoned me just like father did! I'm not important! I'm worthless!"

Suddenly, a child's voice says to Shinji with a caring tone while standing right in front of him, "You don't have to feel like that."

Shinji's eyes widen immediately after hearing those words and then slowly lifts his head up with a stunned expression. He sees that the child who said that is his younger self and then asks with a vague tone, "What do you mean?"

The younger Shinji responds with happiness gleaming within his eyes. "Mother loves us. She would never abandon us. All she's doing is giving us space until we decide to let her back in."

Surprise quickly takes over Shinji's face while he says softly, "She's waiting for me?"

Younger Shinji nods while smiling brightly. "Yeah, and Nero's waiting for us too!"

Shinji becomes confused by the younger version's statement. "What? But he's dead."

Younger Shinji shakes his head with it lowered momentarily while his eyes are closed. After doing that, he looks at his older self and says with confidence while both of his hands are clenched next to his body, "Can't you feel him?! He's alive!"

Shinji looks at the younger version of himself with a dumbfounded expression while thinking, "Feel him?" His eyes then widen as a heavy feeling dwells within his chest and causes him to hurriedly snap his head downward. At the same time, Shinji places his left hand on top of his chest while faintly saying, "Nero..." He smiles while looking up at his younger self and removes the other hand from his head to put it down on the grass. After doing that, Shinji gets up on his feet and looks down at his younger self and says with confidence, "He's still alive."

Younger Shinji nods at him again. "Yep. Remember, we aren't alone. We're definitely not alone anymore. We have so many people to fight for. To love and care about. We can't give up now. No matter how painful it is. We can't deny the pain. We can only live with it and be happy."

After hearing those words, Shinji smiles with his head slightly slanted to the left. "You're right." He then opens his eyes while straightening his head's posture. "Thank you for reminding me."

Younger Shinji happily responds with his eyes closed. "You're welcome."

With those final words, Shinji slowly wakes up as he's lying on the clinic bed. He's a bit out of it because of him just waking up and all he can do is glance around the room without much effort of moving his head. After doing that, Shinji sits up on his bed and continues to look around. Then, Shinji's suddenly tackled by Mari, who had jumped onto him from his left while yelling out his name. This had caused Shinji to drop his back onto the bed again while Mari lies on top of him.

Mari yells out of happiness while her head's buried into Shinji's chest as her hands tightly hold onto his shirt, "Shinji, you're awake! I'm so happy!"

Shinji looks down at Mari while being stunned for a moment. He then smiles while resting his head on the bed's pillow and stares at the ceiling. "I'm sorry that I made you worry."

Mari lifts her head up and quickly slaps her lips against Shinji's. This greatly surprises Shinji since he didn't expect such an action, but he has no complaints as he enjoys the feeling that comes with it. Mari then stops, suddenly takes off her glasses with her right hand, places her hands on Shinji's cheeks and looks deep into his eyes. "I love you, Shinji Ikari! Please don't leave me like that again!"

Shinji blinks in a confused manner due to the suddenness of Mari's words and then smiles with confidence arising. "I would rather die then leave you, Mari."

Mari smiles happily and gives Shinji another passionate kiss with her eyes shut.

Shinji returns Mari's affection without hesitation as he thinks with his eyes closed, "I have too much in this world. I won't leave it. I won't run away like before."

After a few seconds of kissing, Mari stops kissing Shinji and separates herself a little from him by placing her hands on each side of the bed that's near Shinji's head while saying with happiness overflowing, "And there's good news! Nero's-"

Shinji quickly cuts her off. "Alive? I know."

Mari's surprised by Shinji while pulling her head back a bit. "How do you know?!"

Shinji confidently smiles at Mari. "Because I'm his brother. It's as simple as that." He closes his eyes again while smiling with pure happiness on his face.

*Scene Cuts To Black*

To Be Continued...

Brief Statement:

Did I surprise any of you? Nero's still alive and things are starting to pick up. I put a lot of emphasis on Shinji and Nero's past. I even revealed the promise between the two brothers. If any you guys realized it, I used the memory that Shinji had during the End of Evangelion with him being in a sandbox after his mother's death. I decided to make that the setting of Nero and Shinji's promise while successfully not changing anything about the memory that occurred prior to that meeting. I hope you all enjoyed the episode. The finale is getting closer and closer, so look forward to that.

That's it. Talk to you all later.


End file.
